Military holidays
by LoSa
Summary: Teen Power story #8. Autumn holidays in a camp, what can be better? Until a guy, who thinks he's the coolest guy in the camp, begins to hit on Richelle. Nick isn't going to let him get away with it. The others support Nick and soon they all find themselves deep in trouble. This story is without any detective subplot. Nick's narration.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1. Welcome to Mountain Knight**

The story I want to tell began when my parents decided to visit their relatives in Greece. They decided that the autumn holidays were perfect time to leave for Greece because I could go with them without skipping classes at school. But the last thing I wanted was to spend my holidays in a tiny village in Greece. I tried to convince them that there was no need in taking me with them. I told them that without me they would spend two romantic weeks with their families in their native places.

In the end Dad agreed, but to my unhappiness, he point-blank refused to leave me alone in Raven Hill for two weeks. I tried to convince him that I would be okay, but he disagreed. At that time one of his friends told him that his son had just come back from a famous holiday camp, called "Mountain Knight". Dad made inquiries about this place and found out that this camp was exactly what he needed. As he said to me that night when he and mum informed me about their decision, the conditions there were terrific. This holiday camp for kids from rich families was seriously guarded. Beautiful places, delicious meal, all kinds of entertainment, such paintball, tennis, football, computer games and other things... In other words he was sure that I would have a good time there.

As for me, I wanted to go there no more than I wanted to go to Greece.

'It's a wonderful place,' Dad was coaxing me. 'You can do anything you want there: to play paintball, to swim, to go to parties. They always hire only famous DJs. This is a quite expensive place and I'm sure that there will be a lot of beautiful, nice girls from respectable and successful families there...'

'I don't want girls from respectable and successful families,' I muttered.

'Clean, comfortable rooms with good furniture and equipment,' mum put in. 'Kind counselors.'

'I don't need counselors,' I snapped. 'I'm not a little kid.'

'I'm not saying that you're a little kid,' mum objected. 'Counselors will just help you to have a good time and to get acquainted with other people.'

I rolled my eyes. You want to say that these counselors will just supervise and control me all the time, I thought crossly. I guess she considered the fact that I'd be under strict control was the best advantage of this place.

'I won't go there without Richelle,' I said firmly. I couldn't even imagine what I would do there alone with all these unknown kids.

Dad rolled his eyes, sighed and reached for the phone. It crossed my mind that he was ready to do anything to send me to this stupid camp and not to leave me alone at home. I wonder why? I wasn't going to have parties while my parents were away. Well not every night.

Dad punched in the number and had a long conversation with Mr Brinkley. As we soon discovered, Richelle's parents didn't mind sending their daughter with me to a boarding camp for kids from rich families.

Richelle, as well as me, didn't share their enthusiasm. Next day we discussed it and offered the others to join us. Unlike us, they were glad to go. Elmo's father and Sunny's mother doubted that they could pay for their living in this camp, where prices could be compared with prices in a luxury five-star hotel. But they must have solved their problems, because a few days later our parents drove us to the bus station, where a lot of other kids with parents were standing around with their bags. They were talking and laughing. Small kids were running around. Older kids were sitting on the benches or standing in circles, excitedly talking to each other.

I couldn't help noticing that all counselors, who were going to escort us to the camp, were in the camouflage uniform with embroidery patches on the chest. In the centre of the patch there was an image of a knight with a sword in his hand and happy expression on his face at the background of peak of a mountain.

'I don't get it,' I drawled ironically, looking at the counselors. 'Are you sending us to a camp or to a prison?'

Mum also was looking anxiously at this military stuff.

'Um… As far as I know most of good children's institutions have their own uniform for staff and visitors,' she suggested faintly.

'I'd say these people don't look like counselors from a children's institution at all,' Richelle shook her head doubtfully.

'It doesn't matter,' Mr Brinkley put in. 'The main thing is good conditions for you.'

'According to the sum of money we paid, the conditions must be good,' Zim agreed and sighed heavily.

Liz, Elmo and Tom also were looking at the counselors' uniform with suspicion. Unlike them, Sunny beamed. 'Maybe they pay a lot of attention to sport there?' she suggested cheerfully.

Richelle gloomily glanced at her and grumbled something, examining her fingernails. She wasn't keen on sport, to put it mildly. Actually she hates sport. As for me, I was starting to suspect that the next two weeks were going to be difficult.

Finally the counselors asked us to board the buses. Crowd of kids of all ages rushed to board the buses, while their parents helped the bus drivers to load their bags into the buses. We settled down in front of the second bus, as we always did because of Richelle's car-sick. Our parents waved to us and went towards their cars. The driver slammed the bus into gear and we set off.

Here we go, I thought gloomily, looking out the window over Richelle's head.

We'd been driving for about three hours. When I started to think that this journey would never end, we turned into a country road, which led into the scrubby bush.

In ten minutes the bus stopped in front of huge massive gates, which immediately slid open. Behind the gates there was the territory of the camp. The buses growled into the parking area and stopped. We all stumbled off the bus and started looking around. Two men in the same camouflage uniforms came out of a long, two-story building to welcome us. The older man announced solemnly, 'Welcome to the Mountain Knight, young friends!'

'Why do they call this place Mountain Knight?' Richelle whispered in my ear. 'I don't see any mountain or even a hill here.'

I shrugged. 'Maybe they think it sounds more romantic,' I suggested.

All kids were divided into groups according to their age and gender. Every group had their own counselor. We were in the oldest group. Our counselors turned out to be two young people - a girl Marina for the girls, and a guy Michael for the boys. They both were only five or so years older than we.

Then we were shown our rooms. There were five or six equal sleeping buildings for kids in the camp. The girls were settled in the first long building. Tom, Elmo and I had a room in the second building on the ground floor together with other boys of our year or one year younger. Boys who were two or more years younger were sent to other buildings.

Furnishings in the buildings, where we were supposed to live, oddly combined barrack way of life with luxury. Every sleeping room was for three persons. There were three single beds, three bed tables, three small clothes cabinets and one table in every room. But in the common room in every building there were great furniture, leather divans and armchairs, which were so soft that you could sink into them; and huge flat screen TVs hung on the walls.

Luckily they gave one room for Tom, Elmo and me. I can't say that I was looking forward to living with Tom and Elmo, but it was much better than to live in one room with unknown guys. Tom and Elmo seemed to be glad to share one room too. Hardly had we brought our bags into our rooms and looked around, when we were ordered to gather outside, where they gave packets with uniform to us. We looked at each other. None of us wanted to wear a uniform. In fact, Richelle went further and positively refused to put it on. She said that she wanted to wear her own clothes. But our counselor Michael said that he didn't care what she wanted and that she would wear the uniform, because it was one of the rules of this camp and our parents had known about it and agreed.

'Maybe they knew about it, but we didn't,' Richelle went on arguing.

'No arguments!' the counselor barked.

Richelle pouted and took the packet from his hands. The rest of us also received our packets.

The set of uniform for boys consisted of two camouflage T-shirts – one with short sleeves and the other one with long sleeves; dark-green shorts; dark-green jeans and a camouflage sweatshirt. T-shirts and sweatshirt had embroidery patches on the chest.

The set of uniform for girls consisted of two camouflage T-shirts; a camouflage cardigan; a dark-green skirt; dark-green half hoses and dark-green tights for cold weather.

As for footwear, we could wear our own joggers or other sport shoes. Girls were allowed to wear joggers or their own shoes without heels.

'You can wear your own clothes to parties,' Michael explained. 'But the rest of time you must wear only the uniform.'

'But what if I soil my uniform?' I asked hopefully.

'You'll have to wash it,' the counselor replied dryly. 'In every sleeping building we have laundry rooms where you'll find automatic washing machines, washing powder, basins and irons, and everything else what you need for washing.

'But I can't wash and iron,' I objected.

'You have to learn then,' the counselor shrugged.

'Stop arguing with him,' Sunny whispered in my ear. 'We won't go home until we do time here, whether you want it or not.'

I sighed. It was an appropriate comparison. Whether we wanted it or not, we'd have to do time in this prison. I was starting to regret that I'd refused to go to Greece.

After that we all were sent to our rooms to change. I put on my uniform and doubtfully stared into the mirror. My reflection in the camouflage T-shirt and dark-green jeans stared back. It was terrible! I had a feeling that our parents had made a mistake and accidently sent us to a prison.

Tom and Elmo obviously decided that they would look better in shorts. But in my opinion, in dark-green shorts and camouflage T-shirts they looked even worse than I in these awful jeans.

I kept examining myself in the mirror when Tom came up to me from behind.

'It could be worse,' he sighed.

'Nothing could be worse,' I muttered. I still didn't like myself in this military outfit.

Elmo diplomatically shrugged and didn't say anything. Zimmer usually doesn't care how he looks.

'Hi!' a spotty guy put his head around the door. 'I was asked to tell you that lunch would begin in fifteen minutes. Exactly at one p.m. Don't be late. If you're late to lunch, you won't receive meal till teatime,' saying this, the guy closed the door and ran away.

'Great! Our parents couldn't find a better place to send us to,' my mood completely ruined.

'We'll get over it,' Elmo patted me on the shoulder, 'right Tom?'

Tom didn't answer, just sighed heavily. You could see that he didn't like the military atmosphere in this Mountain Knight either.

'Hey, guys!' we heard voices from the hall. Liz, Sunny and Richelle came running into our room, all dressed in the uniform.

'So, what do you think about our outfit?' Sunny asked cheerfully.

'Sunny Chan! How can you laugh?!' Richelle burst out, almost in tears. 'Stop torturing me! This awful uniform doesn't suit me at all! I hate it!'

Though, to be honest, in my opinion in a dark-green short skirt, half hoses and camouflage T-shirt, she looked quite sexy.

All of a sudden we heard an ear piercing howling sound from the outside. We all jumped and looked at each other in fright.

'Maybe this sound means an invitation to lunch?' Elmo suggested.

'It sounds more like air warning horn from movies about war,' Tom shivered.

'I don't like all these military things,' Liz grumbled.

'Didn't you hear the signal?' Michael stormed into the room. 'It's time for lunch.'

'Aye, aye, sir!' Tom saluted.

'I didn't get it,' Michael severely looked him up and down.

'Try to work it out then,' Sunny grinned.

'Stow it!' Michael barked. 'Go to the canteen! Quick!'

'We don't know where to go,' Liz said reassuringly.

'Go outside, then to the end of the building, then turn to the left and go straight ahead,' Michael explained. 'Off you go now!'

Tom wanted to salute again, but I quickly kicked him. Otherwise this Michael could get angry with us and our life here would be completely impossible.

So we went out of the building and walked towards the canteen. We quickly found it. A lot of kids crowded on the porch in front of the door. We came up to them.

'Hi,' a thin guy of our age smiled at us. 'My name is Gregory. I haven't met you here before. It's your first time in this camp, isn't it?'

We nodded and said our names. Gregory started to tell us about this place. As it turned out he lived in the same building where we lived. His parents often sent him here for holidays.

Suddenly I heard steps from behind and turned to see. A guy of our age was coming towards us. He was tall, slender, had fair hair and perfect teeth. And he was quite good-looking and well-dressed. He came up to us and haughtily looked us up and down.

'Hi Greg! How are you?' he cavalierly slapped Gregory on his shoulder.

I noticed that Gregory shyly bent down his head. Then the guy turned to us and cheekily winked at Richelle.

'Hey, I see beautiful girls arrived here,' he grinned at her. 'I'm Victor. What's your name?'

Richelle smiled proudly. She loves to be in the spotlight. And she loves even more to play with male human beings.

'I'm Richelle,' she said playfully, flattering her eyelashes and looking at Victor with one of those looks, which I knew so well, as if she was saying "I'm so beautiful, and so smart and just the best girl you'll ever meet, but I'm not yours."

'Oh, we're so proud,' Victor sniggered.

Richelle's face changed. She stopped flattering her eyelashes and smiling, and crossly shook back her long fair hair.

That's it, I snickered to myself. Your charm affects not anyone.

Victor obviously saw his friends in the crowd and made a sign to them. Then he winked at Richelle again, and saying "see you later, miss", he sauntered towards his friends.

'Fuck off,' I muttered through clenched teeth.

'I want to warn you, Richelle,' Gregory said. 'See that girl over there?' he jerked his head towards a red-haired, good-looking girl, who'd already hung around Victor's neck. 'This is Christina Anderson. They've been dating since last summer. And she won't give in.'

'I don't care,' Richelle said arrogantly. 'I don't like this Victor at all.'

'Do you know him?' Sunny asked Gregory.

'Yeah, unfortunately,' he nodded, looking disgusted. 'It's Victor Wilson. He often spends his holidays in this camp. Kids here try not to tangle with him. But those who tried to object usually didn't end up well.'

'What do you mean?' Liz asked nervously.

'Wilson never plays fair,' Gregory said. 'He prefers to play dirty tricks. That's why most of kids here are afraid of him. So I want to give you a piece of advice – don't stand in his way. It can be dangerous.'

'It can be dangerous _for him_ to stand in _our_ way,' I muttered.

Tom glanced at me and laughed. 'Ye-ah,' he drawled. 'I see the military atmosphere of this camp is already affecting us.'

'I'm telling you, don't touch him,' Greg repeated.

I gave him a grim glance, but didn't say anything. I was starting to think that living in this camp was going to be more difficult than I'd thought before.

'Hey, I'm dying of hunger! Are we going to eat today?' Tom begged.

'Yeah,' Elmo supported him

'We have to wait for Michael,' Gregory replied. 'We can't eat without our counselor.'

'Is there something what we can do here without a counselor?' I muttered. More and more I didn't like this Mountain Knight.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. Rules of behavior in the camp**

Finally Michael turned up.

'Lunch! Come in,' he commanded dryly.

'I hope we don't have to form up according to height,' I muttered.

'Hey, Nick, break off your protest action at least for lunch-time,' Liz whispered in my ear.

'Are you six going to eat?' Michael came up to us. 'I want to warn you, this is the first and only time when I'm waiting for you. Next time you'll be left without meal.'

'Okay, colonel,' Richelle gave him a seductive smile.

'I'm not a colonel, I'm a junior lieutenant,' Michael replied gravely. 'In the canteen you get.'

We glanced at each other and came into the big canteen, full of kids, both big and small. Michael led us to a long table and pointed at vacant seats. Tom, Sunny, Richelle and I sat together. Liz and Elmo sat on the opposite side of the table in front of us.

At that moment Victor Wilson and four guys, apparently his friends, sat down next to Liz. Victor turned out to sit right in front of Richelle. He smiled all over his face.

'Hi, Rich,' he winked at her. 'I told you that we'd meet soon.'

Richelle raised her head proudly and stood up to find another place to sit. But all chairs were occupied. She had no choice but to sit down again.

'Miss Pride wanted to run away, didn't she?' Victor drawled with malignant triumph.

Richelle turned to me.

'Leave her alone,' I exploded.

'Did you say something?' Wilson reacted immediately.

'Nick, please, not here,' Richelle pleadingly whispered in my ear.

'You wanted to say something to me, hah?' there was challenge in Wilson's voice.

I had to reply something, but before I could say a word, Michael appeared at our table.

'Is everything okay?' he looked attentively at Wilson.

'Fine,' Victor replied dryly.

'Okay,' Michael said, suspiciously looking at us. Then he turned round and went away.

Richelle and I exchanged glances.

'The soup is delicious!' Tom exclaimed, cramming spoon full of soup into his mouth one by one.

'Little things please little minds,' Richelle rolled her eyes.

For a few minutes we all chewed. I can't deny that Tom was right. The meal in this camp was really delicious.

'I see you all like the military meal,' Sunny grinned, looking at us.

'This meal isn't military,' Tom answered with his mouth full. 'The meal here is as tasty as grandmother's.'

The rest of lunch was more or less quiet. Wilson didn't say anything to Richelle or to me. His friends also were silent. When we finished eating, Michael announced that we could go around the camp to see it, but after teatime, at five o'clock, we were to gather on the football field to get acquainted with rules of living in this camp.

We went outside and slowly wandered along the path when Gregory called us out.

'Hey,' he caught up with us, 'I can show you the camp,' he said, looking at Liz with interest.

'It would be nice of you,' she smiled.

To be honest I didn't feel like wandering around the camp. But there was nothing else to do. The others and Gregory had already gone ahead. I trailed after them.

The territory of the camp was huge. At first Gregory showed us a big, wide open site behind the canteen. As he said when the weather was good they gave parties here. When the weather was bad, parties were transferred to the second floor of the canteen.

Except parties, on the second floor of the canteen there was a room they called "the movie theater", with huge screen and movie projector, where we could watch a film.

'Wow!' Richelle admired.

'Should we go to watch movies in an orderly fashion, too?' I asked gloomily.

'No,' Greg grinned. 'It depends on your desire. If you want – you can watch a movie. But if you don't want – do something else.'

'I wonder what else I can do here,' I sighed.

But as it turned out, there were a lot of other entertainments in the Mountain Knight. Actually there were probably all kinds of entertainment: painting, studying of foreign languages, embroidering, swimming, a gym, singing, gymnastics and so on.

'You can even dive,' Gregory said. 'There is a divers club here in this camp. They train in the special swimming pool.'

'This is just for our Tom,' I sneered.

'Why not?' Tom shrugged. 'Scuba-diving is very interesting. I heard there are a lot of beautiful fishes at the bottom.'

'Are you mad?' Sunny glanced at him. 'What fishes at the bottom of the swimming pool?'

'Um…' Tom blushed.

'Don't you understand, Sunny?' I laughed. 'There are two big fishes at the bottom of the swimming pool. One of them is Tom. And the second one is a drowned coach.'

Everyone except Tom burst into laughter. Tom completely couldn't swim. Even in the swimming pool he always swims in the shallow end, let alone diving with scuba.

We went further. Gregory led us past two tennis court and a big, two-story building of fitness centre. Then we walked past football field, surrounded by athletic track. Behind the football field there were volleyball and basketball courts.

'Oh!' Gregory slapped his forehead. 'I almost forgot! There's even a big library near the canteen.'

'Library?' I repeated in surprise. 'I wonder who reads here. It seems to me that this Mountain Knight propagandizes only sport and entertainment'

'No,' Gregory shook his head. 'You're wrong. There are a lot of intellectual clubs here.'

'It's more like a finishing school than Mountain Knight,' I grumbled.

'Let's go back,' Richelle yawned. 'I want to unpack my things.'

'Yeah,' I agreed. 'Me too.'

We walked along the path towards sleeping buildings. When we reached the girls' building, they said goodbye and disappeared inside. Tom, Elmo, Gregory and I went further towards the next building. Wilson and his friends were standing beside the door, talking. When we were going past them, Victor coldly looked me up and down. I did the same. Then I pushed the door open and came inside. Neither he nor I said a word.

###

At four p.m. we met the girls near their building and headed for the canteen.

'By the way,' Sunny said meaningfully, 'This Christina Anderson is our neighbor.'

'She lives in the next room,' Liz sighed.

'Victor! Christina! Why can't we speak about something else?' Tom muttered.

We came into the canteen and sat down at our places. Teatime was quiet. Doughnuts were really tasty, even Richelle ate them with pleasure, though she usually doesn't eat doughnuts and other starchy food.

Christina engrossed Victor's whole attention. She changed places with one of Victor's mates, and now was sitting next to him, talking endlessly. At least he didn't even look at Richelle, what suited me fine. So there were no conflicts.

###

Then there was a meeting, holding by our counselors Michael and Marina. First of all Marina said that she was glad to see us in the camp. Then she smiled and asked us not to take offence at severities and limitations, because it all was for our good.

'She's nicer than Michael,' I whispered in Richelle's ear.

'Yeah,' she agreed. 'Your Michael is too grim.'

'How would you know, maybe he had a deprived childhood,' Tom put in, looking sideways at Michael's grim face.

'Knock it off!' Michael barked as if he felt that we were discussing him.

'The years of his childhood obviously were spent in a soldier barrack,' I grinned.

'Do you think it doesn't concern you?' Michael glared at me. 'Now. Here are our rules. Reveille at seven a.m. Breakfast from eight a.m. till nine a.m… After breakfast till…'

'Yeah, he had a deprived childhood in a soldier barrack,' Richelle sighed, shaking her head.

'Why are you shaking your head?' Michael enquired immediately. 'Any questions?'

'No,' Richelle replied, blushing. 'I don't have questions.'

'Be quiet, then,' the counselor ordered. 'After breakfast you are free to do what you want to. We have art clubs, music clubs, library, a gym, sport courts and a swimming pool here. Our teachers, counselors and instructors will help you to make a choice and will teach you something new and interesting. For example in the swimming pool...'

'Can we swim in the swimming pool without supervision?' Tom interrupted.

'No, you can't,' Michael replied coldly. 'You can visit the swimming pool only if your name is in the list of swimmers and only under direct supervision of our swimming instructor.'

'Tom wants to drown individually without the instructor's supervision,' I snorted.

'Individually and without the instructor's supervision is against the rules,' Michael answered seriously. 'I repeat, you can do it only with other members of the group and with the instructor's presence.'

At these words everyone, including Marina, burst into laughter. Only Michael didn't even smile. He was gravely staring at us. The reason of our mad laughter obviously was unknown for him.

'Y-you mean,' Liz stammered, choking with laughter, 'that we can drown here only under the instructor's control.'

'Knock it off!' Michael barked. The laughter broke off.

'Do you have a question?' he turned to Liz.

'She wanted to ask,' Tom chipped in, 'why do we have to drown only with the rest members of the group and under the instructor's control?'

'They think they're very smart,' Christina glared at him.

'I want to warn you,' Michael said, looking at us severely. 'People, who'll try to break the rules, will be punished. In some cases they even will be sent home. If we send you home because you broke the rules, you cannot get a refund.'

'Stop arguing,' Elmo hissed at Tom severely. 'He's already angry with us.'

I nodded. He was right. It was stupid to ask for troubles from the first day. Michael, meanwhile, went on explaining the rules.

'Lunch is from one p.m. till two p.m. From two p.m. till four p.m. - a "quiet hour".'

'Two hours,' Tom said cheerfully. Michel stared at him in bewilderment.

'What two hours?' he asked.

'Quiet,' Tom replied.

'I didn't get it,' the counselor sincerely admitted.

'From two p.m. till four p.m. – it's two hours,' Tom grinned. 'So we'll have not a quiet hour, but _two_ quiet _hours_.'

Several kids giggled again.

'"Quiet hour" is just a name,' Michael said. 'It can last different time. It depends on regulations.'

Tom wanted to object something, but I quickly trod on his foot. 'If you don't shut up right now,' I hissed in his ear, 'we'll be sent back to Raven Hill already _today_.'

'What a good idea,' Tom snorted, but refrained from further comments.

'At four thirty - teatime. From five p.m. till seven p.m. you can do anything you like,' Michael went on. 'For example you can swim in the swimming pool. Or on exercise equipment.'

'To swim on exercise equipment?' I snorted. I said it against my will. I just couldn't help myself.

'Who asked this question?' Michael exploded.

'Him,' Christina Anderson helpfully pointed at me.

'It's a stupid question,' the counselor said gravely. 'If you don't know, people work out their bodies on exercise equipment, but not swim.'

'Thank you,' Liz said reassuringly. 'He didn't know.'

'Now _you_ ask stupid questions?' Sunny dug me in the ribs at the same time. 'Do you want to make an enemy for the rest of your living here?'

Then Michael informed us that we were forbidden to leave the territory of the camp. The punishment for breaking this rule was the same – calling our parents and early sending home.

After dinner, which started at 7 p.m., till 11 p.m. we could read in the library, or play computer games, or chat in the internet, or see movies in the "movie theatre", or watch huge TV-sets in the common room in our sleeping buildings or do something else.

We also had to serve dishes in the canteen on our own in turn.

At this point Michael made a pause and solemnly announced, 'Plan of our actions for tomorrow: After breakfast, at ten a.m. you all are going to the football field to greet the camp director. Then you follow the regulations. After dinner, at nine p.m. we invite you to the party.'

His voice was muffled by joyful yelling. Mention of a party cheered everyone up.

'Now,' Michael raised his voice. 'Rules of behavior at the party…' he broke off, because of the hooter, which called us for dinner.

'Dinner!' Michael barked. 'We'll talk about rules of behavior at the party tomorrow. Off you go now!'

'Mike, there's no need in it,' Marina smiled softly. 'They've already known everything.'

'Maybe you're right,' Michael agreed this time. 'The main thing,' he said, heading for the canteen, 'is to maintain the discipline.'

'Don't worry,' Wilson said importantly, 'everything will be okay.'

'We'll see,' Tom muttered.

Wilson looked him up and down, and without saying a word, he turned round and went into the canteen. His retinue obediently followed him.

'Tom, don't tangle with him,' Sunny groaned. 'I've had enough of fighting with the Work Demons in Raven Hill. I don't want to fight with someone else here.'

'Besides,' Elmo supported her, 'I don't know about your parents, but my father paid a quite large sum of money for this camp. I don't want to be thrown out of here because of you.'

Tom and I looked at each other. And I was sure that this time he was on my side.

'Hurry up!' Michael turned up in the doorway of the canteen.

We came in and sat down on our chairs. Christina was sitting next to Wilson again, but this time it didn't stop him from turning to Richelle.

'I'm looking forward to seeing you at the party tomorrow, miss,' he said, smiling coquettishly. 'You'll like it, I promise.'

Christina pressed her lips together and gave Richelle so furious glance, that she shuddered.

'Vic,' Christina cooed, keeping her piercing eyes on Richelle, 'last year parties here were so cool. I hope they'll invite the same DJ.'

'You didn't answer, miss,' Wilson said to Richelle, as if he didn't hear his girlfriend.

'I'll answer you, mister,' I interfered. 'You…'

'I'm not speaking to _you_,' Victor snapped through gritted teeth.

'But _I'm_ speaking to _you_,' I said, trying to sound as steadily as possible, what was quite difficult, though. 'If you hadn't noticed, we're a team, and we don't want strangers to interfere into our life. But if you want, you can meet with _me_ at the party.'

'Hey, he wants to dance with you Vic,' one of Victor's boys sniggered.

'If I dance with your boss, it'll be the last party in his life,' I snapped.

'Oh wow,' Wilson sneered, 'are you threatening me?'

I smiled with my most superior smile. 'No. I'm just warning you that if you touch Richelle, you'll never pay off your dentist, because I'll knock out all your teeth.'

Saying that, I started to eat my dinner, trying to make my heart beat more slowly and to look calm. I glanced secretly at Wilson. He was staring at me attentively, as if I was an odd insect. Then he smiled to himself and started eating too.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3. The war is declared**

After dinner we went our separate ways. Sunny wanted to visit the gym. Liz and Elmo went to the library. Tom decided to devote this evening to painting.

Richelle and I went for a walk. We wanted to be alone. Hand-in-hand we slowly wandered along a shadowy alley, chattering. We walked past several buildings, canteen, tennis court and reached the tall wooden fence. I noticed that one board in the fence was loose. I walked off the path and took a closer look. That's right. Two wooden boards could be moved aside, creating a hole in the fence. A mad, but tempting idea immediately came into my mind.

'Hey, let's see what's there?' I turned to Richelle.

'Are you mad?' she looked at me as if I was completely insane. 'Don't you remember what Michael said? We're forbidden to leave the territory of the camp.'

'We're forbidden to leave the territory of the camp through the gates,' I winked at her.

'I didn't get it,' Richelle mimicked Michael's intonation.

I laughed. 'Sunny was right,' I said cheerfully. 'We'll make a mortal enemy out of Michael.'

Richelle came closer to me and put her hands around my waist. 'I think we've got enough enemies for one day,' she said.

'Come on,' I breathed in her ear.

'No,' she shook her head vigorously. 'I'm afraid. What if someone will notice us?'

'There's no one around here,' I coaxed her. I was dying of desire to be alone with her. 'All counselors are busy. We'll just have a look what's there and that's all.'

Richelle sighed and looked around nervously. I looked around too. There was no one around in sight. I moved the loose board in the fence aside. 'Go,' I whispered to her. Richelle quickly crept through the hole. I followed her. Then I moved the board on its place and looked around. We were standing on a ground, covered with clay, grass and rare scrubby bushes. But a little bit further there was a bunch of thick bushes.

I grabbed Richelle's hand and we ran towards those bushes. This bunch of bushes turned out to be a quiet, nice place, just like our Glen. It crossed my mind that it could be a good place if we wanted to speak alone.

I pulled Richelle closer to me and kissed her.

'Not here,' she hissed and dragged me further. When she finally made sure that no one would see us, she let me kiss her. I pressed her against a tree trunk. For a while we were passionately kissing. Suddenly she started and gently drew me away.

'Did you hear this?' she whispered.

'What?'

'A branch snapped,' she whispered nervously.

'You imagined this,' I drew her towards me again. But she shook my hands off and dragged me behind a bush with thick, bright green leaves. I didn't mind, though. Behind this bush I felt more confident, knowing exactly that no one would see us there.

I sat down on the grass and hugged Richelle. It was so good to have her by my side. When she was close to me I felt so calm and relaxed and at the same time so excited. I can't explain this. Richelle slid one leg over mine, straddling my thighs, put her hands around my neck and smiled sweetly. I pulled her T-shirt off her. She kissed me, her hands were on my back underneath my T-shirt. She was about to pull it off me, when we heard a branch loudly cracked. Someone came close to our bush.

We froze. I felt Richelle's fingernails digging into my arm. I squeezed her hand reassuringly. Behind these bushes we were safe.

I carefully peered through the branches and saw, of all people, Victor Wilson. He and four of his friends crept between bushes, looking around all the time. I put my finger to my lips, giving Richelle a sign to be quiet. Though there was no need in it. Richelle without me clearly understood that if they noticed us there, neither she nor I would end up well. I knew I wasn't strong enough to fight with them all on my own. And I had no idea what to expect from them. Who knows what they could decide to do with Richelle. We didn't know how far they could go. For the first time since the morning I was glad that we were in this camouflage uniform. It made us unnoticeable.

The five guys went past our bush and soon disappeared out of sight.

'Let's see where they're going,' I suggested.

'No!' Richelle hissed, putting on her T-shirt. 'Just imagine what can happen if they notice us. We've already seriously broken the rules.'

'Okay, okay,' I whispered. Having pulled her close to me again, I kissed her. We were behind that bush for about half an hour, but Richelle wasn't in mood any more. She was tensed, and looked around and listened all the time. In the end I decided not to torture her any more.

'Come on,' I sighed. Richelle easily agreed and stood up, brushing dry herbs off her dark-green skirt.

Looking around, we went back to the fence of the camp, trying to keep ourselves as near as possible to bushes in case we noticed someone. Richelle was nervously turning her head in all directions, and constantly stumbled over dry grass, shrubs and roots of trees and bushes.

Suddenly she stopped dead and shrieked.

'Shh,' I hissed. 'What's up?

'Cobweb,' she muttered, brushing at her T-shirt.

'I've never met a person, who'd be on so bad terms with the wilderness,' I sighed, wiping the cobweb off her face with a handkerchief.

'I just don't like the wilderness. And it doesn't like me,' Richelle grumbled and tripped over a spreading root again.

'I see,' I snorted.

Finally we reached the fence, and looking around, carefully crept through the hole. Then I moved the board on its place and caught up with Richelle, who'd already gone up the path. We decided to go to their room, because Richelle said that after such a walk through bushes, she needed to have a shower.

###

The others were in the girls' room and were playing cards when we came in.

'Where have you two been?' Liz asked crossly.

Richelle and I looked at each other. 'We were walking,' she said, then grabbed the towel and went into the bathroom.

'We were looking for you everywhere,' Elmo scowled. 'But didn't find you. I hope nothing happened?'

'No,' I shrugged. 'We just…were beyond the fence of the camp.'

'Are you crazy?' Liz hissed. 'Michael clearly said that we can't leave the territory of the camp.'

'Oh, come on, Liz,' I waved her off. 'No one saw us.'

But _we_ saw someone, I thought.

'I'm starting to like this place,' Sunny said cheerfully. 'Well, except for this Wilson, of course. But there are so many sport entertainments here.'

'And the library here is wonderful,' Elmo supported her. 'There are so many books there.'

The door opened a little and Marina, the girls' counselor, poked her head round the door. 'Oh, hello, boys,' she smiled. 'But I'm afraid you have to go. It's quite late already. So…'

'We're leaving,' Elmo smiled shyly. He and Tom stood up to go. I sighed. Richelle was still having a shower. I didn't want to go away without saying goodbye to her.

'Go, boys, go,' Marina jerked her head at the door.

We said goodbye to Liz and Sunny, and left the room. As soon as we came into our room, Tom grabbed his towel and yelling, 'I'm first,' ran into the bathroom and locked the door.

I rolled my eyes. I should thank my lucky stars that rooms in this camp were for three persons. I don't think I could stand other unknown guys, living in one room with me.

In the end we all had a shower in turn and sat down on our beds, waiting for Michael. Soon he peered into the room, nodded and closed the door again.

'By the way,' Elmo gave me a meaningful glance. 'While you were away, someone asked about you.'

'Wilson, I guess?' I grinned.

'Exactly,' Elmo nodded.

'And what did he want?' I sighed.

'I don't know,' Elmo shrugged. 'He didn't say.'

'Yeah, it seems to me that he won't leave us alone,' I sighed, watching Elmo turn off the light. I lay back on the pillow, pulling up my quilt.

'This is it,' Tom agreed joyfully. 'Wilson won't let us feel bored here. By the way, speaking of Wilson…' he suddenly jumped off his bed.

'What else?' Elmo yawned, propping himself on one elbow.

'Don't you understand?' Tom switched on the light again. 'What if this idiot will decide to come here at night to play a nasty joke?'

'You're right,' I started to worry, too.

'Oh, come on, guys!' Elmo lay down again. 'We're not little kids.'

'Oh, Elmo, you're so incredibly naive,' Tom drawled. 'You've never slept in one building with other kids, haven't you? I'm sure that Wilson won't miss a chance to do something to us.'

'Anyway, we should be ready for that,' I agreed with him. 'The main thing in such situations is not to let the enemy take us by surprise.'

'How are we going not to let them?' Elmo asked perplexedly. 'What can we do? To stay awake all night long?' Elmo didn't know what to do. It wasn't surprising; he was a very shy guy and didn't spend a lot of time with other kids.

'Don't worry, Elmo, there's no need to stay awake,' I grinned. 'We just shouldn't let the enemy take us by surprise. So the best what we can do is to build a barricade.'

'But how?' Elmo looked around the room helplessly.

'Let's see what we have,' Tom had already opened the doors of his clothes cabinet and was examining its content. 'Aha,' he exclaimed, pulling out his bag. He put the bag down on the floor and started to stuff it with pencils, books and other things. Elmo was staring at him in bewilderment. But I understood Tom's idea, and I had to admit that it wasn't bad. So I jumped out of my bed and started to help Tom.

'If this bag upsets and everything falls out on the floor, it'll create a great noise,' I explained to Elmo.

'Yeah,' Tom grinned. 'Even the girls will hear.'

'It doesn't matter,' I grinned back. '_We'll_ hear. That's the point.'

Tom and I set two chairs near the door and fixed the bag, filled with stuff on them. Now we could be sure that if someone opened the door, this bag would overturn and everything would fall down on the floor with an awful noise.

Tom gave his efforts one last inspection. 'Now we can sleep quietly,' he said with satisfaction.

'But what if Michael will come to check us?' Elmo still doubted.

'So what? Even if Michael comes, he'll only open the door a crack and peer in,' I explained. 'But if someone opens the door and _comes_ in, the bag will upset.'

'Okay, now let's get some sleep,' Tom yawned, climbing into his bed.

Elmo and I also got into our beds. The only good thing is that I won't see this Wilson till the morning, I thought, pulling my quilt up to my chin.

###

But no one in that building slept till the morning that night. At three a.m. we all were woken up by a terrible noise. Straight after that there was a loud scream. I jumped to my feet. Tom stumbled out of his bed and cannoned into me. Someone turned the light on, blinding us.

'What's going on?' I heard someone snarl.

I opened my eyes, squinting against the bright light. Michael was standing in the doorway, looking around grimly. Elmo was lying on the floor, among pencils, books, paint tubes and other things, we had put into the bag. Chairs also were overturned. Elmo was holding his left leg with both hands, groaning. Tom and I glanced at each other.

'So?' Michael demanded. 'Whose bag is it?'

'Mine,' Tom mumbled.

'We must have forgotten to put this bag into the wardrobe,' I said the first thing what had come into my head.

'Okay,' Michael frowned. 'You have forgotten. But you,' he turned to Elmo, 'where were you going at this time of night?'

'To the toilet,' Elmo replied piteously.

'Okay, I can see the picture,' Michael sighed.

Other boys had woken up, too, of course, and crowded in the doorway behind Michael's back. Wilson was in front of them, smiling malignantly.

'Take this stuff away from the floor and go to bed,' Michael commanded. 'And I want to warn you that since this moment I'll be watching you.'

Wilson and his boys sniggered. 'Go to your rooms,' Michael barked, turning to them. 'The show is over.' He turned away and slammed the door behind him.

'The barricade must be restored,' I commanded.

'Wait for me please,' Elmo pleaded. 'I'll come back soon.'

'Go,' I grinned. Elmo limped over to the door and went into the hall. Tom and I gathered all stuff into the bag again. When Elmo came back, we rebuilt the barricade and got into beds.

At least now we can be sure that it works, I thought, closing my eyes. I couldn't sleep, though. I lay in my bed listening to the wind and whisper of leaves outside as Tom and Elmo slept peacefully. I was alone with my thoughts. And I was thinking of Richelle, and of the others, and of Wilson and of everything what had happened during the day. I should have gone to Greece, I thought regretfully. I could have lain on a beach or seen historical places. But because of my stupidity, I have to fight instead.

###

The next morning we were awakened by the long, ear-piercing howl of the siren. I sat bolt upright, my heart somewhere up in my neck.

'Fire!' Tom jumped up to his feet and rushed towards the door, but tripped over a chair and fell flat on his face. 'I wish this siren would spoil,' he muttered, scrambling to his feet. 'I thought it was a fire alarm!'

'Get up!' Michael opened the door. 'Breakfast begins in forty minutes. Don't be late.'

I had a quick shower, cleaned my teeth and put on the stupid camouflage T-shirt and dark-green jeans. Then we locked the door and headed for the canteen.

We met the girls on our way there. They looked very not vivacious.

'Hi,' I kissed Richelle. 'Did you sleep well?'

'No, not at all,' Liz replied.

Only then I noticed that Liz and Richelle were almost in tears.

'What's up?' I demanded. 'Did Wilson do anything to you? Richelle, tell me!''

'It wasn't Wilson, it was his girlfriend, Christina,' Sunny said grimly. 'But I promise that they both will answer for it. I promise.'

'We didn't do anything to them,' Liz said through tears. 'Why are they doing this?'

'What are they doing?' Elmo exclaimed. 'What? What happened?'

'Someone spread a tooth paste over our faces while we were asleep,' Liz said. 'And they poured water into Richelle's bed.'

'I woke up wet, my face covered with tooth paste,' Richelle said with a sob. 'Or, it was so terrible!'

Tears welled up in her eyes and started rolling down her cheeks. I put my hand around her. Liz also was crying. Tom and Elmo awkwardly comforted her. Sunny wasn't crying, of course. She was furious and kept telling that Christina and her friends would pay for this trick.

'See?' I turned to Elmo. 'We told you.'

'What are you talking about?' Sunny asked.

'Unlike some we aren't so naive,' I grinned. 'We put up a defensive work in front of the enemy's face.'

'Whose victim was poor, innocent Elmo,' Tom laughed.

We told the girls about our night adventures.

'Yeah, it was smart,' Sunny nodded. 'Why didn't we think of that?'

'We didn't think of that because we didn't do anything to them,' Liz shouted. 'Why should we build barricades and defend ourselves?'

At that moment Michael came up to us. 'Moysten! Free!' he barked at Tom and Liz. 'Do you need a special invitation? You're on duty today. Hurry up!'

'We? On duty?' Tom looked at him with astonishment.

'You,' Michael barked. 'Go to the canteen!'

Tom and Liz looked at each other and ran towards the canteen. So by the time the rest of us came into the canteen, tables had been already set with glasses of tea and dishes with eggs and bacon.

Wilson was sitting in front of Richelle, like yesterday, but didn't say anything to her. Christina, looked her up and down with a withering glance.

By this time we had decided not to pay attention to them. I turned to my friends and we started eating, talking something to each other from time to time. I swallowed the piece of bacon and reached for the glass of tea. At this moment I noticed that Wilson was looking at me sideways.

It's weird, a thought crossed my mind. But remembering our agreement not to pay attention to them, I grabbed the glass and took a swig of tea. The next moment tears came into my eyes. I felt as if I'd swallowed fire. I choked, my throat was burning unbearably. The tea in my glass was peppered. Over-peppered.

'Are you okay?' Richelle anxiously glanced at me.

'Yeah, I'm fine,' I tried to sound casual. Then I pushed the glass away and looked straight into Victor's eyes.

'The war is declared, I guess,' I said slowly.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4. Operation "Quarantine"**

'What? Did you say something?' Wilson glanced at me with innocent eyes.

'I've already said what I wanted to say,' I snapped.

'Hey, don't be so rude, we don't like it,' one of Wilson's boys drawled warningly. 'Everyone, who isn't respectful enough to us usually doesn't end up well.'

'We can teach you a few good manners,' another Wilson's boy sniggered.

'Didn't you like your tea?' the first boy pretended to be astonished. 'But why?'

I opened my mouth to reply, but right at that moment Michael turned up at our table.

'Is something wrong?' he asked, looking at me steadily.

I glanced at Wilson. He was looking at me with challenge in his eyes, probably waiting for me to complain. No way. 'No,' I shook my head. 'Nothing's wrong.'

'Eat your food then,' Michael said. 'After breakfast you all go to the football field to greet the director of the camp.'

We nodded. By this time Liz had brought another glass of tea to me. I concentrated on my breakfast, looking secretly at Wilson and his boys and expecting another trick.

We finished the meal in silence. When we stood up to go, Wilson cheekily winked at Richelle. 'See you at the party, miss,' he smiled at her.

Richelle demonstratively turned her back on him. That was the last straw. I couldn't stand that any more. I knew, he was provoking me, but I just couldn't let him get away with it. And I wasn't going to. I leant across the table and hissed into his smiling face, 'You can see _me_ before the party if you want to.'

Victor grinned and replied something, but I didn't hear what he said, because Richelle was already dragging me towards the door.

As soon as we left the canteen, Liz sighed heavily. 'We decided not to tangle with them, Nick,' she said sadly.

'You mean we should be quiet and let them humiliate us?' I exploded. 'It weren't us who started this. He hits on Richelle. He puts pepper into my tea. And don't forget, Liz, Christina and her friends made a nasty trick with you last night. I personally have had enough!'

'It will be the most difficult holidays in my life,' Liz sighed. Her soft heart couldn't stand conflicts. 'Maybe if we don't pay attention to them, they'll leave us alone?'

'No way,' I snapped. I tried to look cool and self-confident, but frankly speaking, my stomach was turning over when I thought what Wilson and his mates could do with me if they met me alone.

'You know that I never start fighting first,' Sunny said with an unexpected cruelty in her voice. 'But this guy and his friends are becoming too impudent. I agree with Nick. We can't let them humiliate us and play dirty tricks with us.'

'It's not so easy,' Elmo sighed heavily. 'Wilson has authority here. As far as I noticed almost all kids in this camp prefer not to tangle with him.'

'If you're afraid of him too, you can stand aside,' I looked at him attentively. 'He didn't do anything to you personally.'

Elmo blushed. 'No, I won't stand aside,' he said firmly.

'We'll show them!' skinny Tom shook his fists belligerently.

'So, let's see what we have… Wilson has four mates on his side. So there are four of us against five of them,' I analyzed the situation. 'Not bad. Sunny has enough power for two persons.'

'What about Richelle and me?' Liz exclaimed indignantly. 'We aren't going to stand aside either.'

'You two cope with Christina for a start,' Tom grinned.

'Hey,' Michael came stomping up to us. 'What did I tell you to do?'

'What?' Tom stared at him innocently.

'I told you to go to the football field,' Michael said, his face like a rock. 'Off you go! Quick! The director will be there in five minutes.'

'Come on,' Sunny whispered. 'If he punishes us, it will be a great pleasure for Wilson and his gang.'

###

When we arrived at the football field, there were a lot of kids. They all lined up according to height. Their counselors were walking around, dressing the ranks.

We came up to the row of kids of our age and separated. Liz, Sunny and Richelle went over to the female rank. Short, stocky Elmo stopped at the end of the male line. Tom and I went towards the head of the line.

I am quite tall, so I squeezed into the line between Gregory and Matt, one of Wilson's mates, almost in the head of the line. Gregory stood on my right and Matt was on my left. Wilson himself was standing in front of him in the head of the line. He snapped something to me. I just raised one eyebrow in reply and didn't say anything. At that moment Tom, who always had been the tallest guy in Raven Hill High, calmly stopped in front of Wilson in the head of the line.

At first Victor just stared at him in surprise. I guess he just couldn't believe that someone could be so cheeky for that. Then his first amazement replaced with angriness.

'Get out of here, you idiot,' he snarled. 'The place in the head of the line is mine. It always was, it always will be.'

'Maybe it _was_ yours,' Tom glared at him. 'But now it's _mine_. I'm taller than you.'

'You're not taller, blockhead,' Wilson growled through clenched teeth. 'As Napoleon used to say, you're longer. I repeat, this place is mine.'

'I repeat, this place _was_ yours,' Tom replied, imitating Wilson's voice.

'Listen, idiot, I give you the last chance,' Victor hissed. 'Crook your knees and take a place behind me. Otherwise I can't promise that you'll return home safe and sound.'

'I'd rather die standing than live on my knees,' Tom said, looking straight ahead, his head proudly raised.

I glanced at Tom in admiration. At this moment I liked him a lot. Honestly, Tom has got a talent to irritate people.

Other kids around us also heard their argument and started giggling and whispering. Wilson went bright red. He pushed Tom with force. But Tom, who always stumbled over his own feet and fell even on flat ground, didn't even move this time. He was standing calmly, looking straight ahead.

'Tell you what, blockhead,' Wilson growled, 'you've just signed your own death warrant.'

Tom didn't reply. I was thinking frantically what to do. Wilson was boiling with anger. And he wasn't alone. Two of his boys were standing nearby, looking attentively at their boss and ready to rush to help him as soon as he gave them a sign. Tom also realised this. He stood steadily in the head of the line and did his best to look self-confident, but I knew him very well. He hesitated. I could see that in his eyes.

I guess we both realised that if Tom refused to give in, Victor would hit him. I, of course, would have to help Tom. Two Victor's stupid boys would rush to help their boss. I wasn't afraid of fight. That is I was afraid of fight, of course, I can't deny it. I mean that it wasn't fight, what I was afraid of at that moment. I knew exactly that Tom and I wouldn't cope with Wilson and his two boys. They're likely to knock us down in front of all kids and prove to anyone who were losers and who were winners in the camp.

I looked around for Sunny. She wasn't very far, and was ready to rush to help us any moment, but it could be even worse for Tom and me. What would other kids think of us, if a girl started to defend us?

At that moment I glanced at Michael, who was standing nearby and a bright idea came into my mind.

'May I ask a question, sir?' I barked loudly, trying to sound like a good soldier.

'Ask, Kontellis,' the counselor apparently was pleased with my tone.

'There is a little problem, sir,' I said calmly. 'Tom and Victor can't decide who is taller and which of them should stay first in the line.'

'Let's see,' Michael came up to us.

He put Tom and Victor back to back and looked attentively at them.

'Moysten is taller. He's first in the line. Wilson's second. Then Adams. Kontellis. …' He went along the line, checking kids and dressing the rank.

Tom and I glanced at each other. It was our first win in this war. Actually it was the first joint win of Tom and me in our entire life.

'You both are dead,' Wilson growled, his face bright red with anger.

'We'll all be there one day,' Tom said mockingly in a tone of an old, wise philosopher.

'But you'll be there a little bit earlier,' Victor was getting more and more furious.

All of a sudden he abruptly kicked Tom at the back of his knee. Tom yelped in surprise and nearly fell down.

'What's wrong this time?' Michael frowned, came rushing to us.

'Nothing's wrong,' Tom said. 'I trod on an edgy stone, that's all.'

Michael looked at him suspiciously, but didn't say anything. Then he noticed a disorder in the end of the line and strode away.

As soon as he went far enough, Wilson kicked Tom again. But this time Tom was ready for that and didn't even move. Actually he went further and allowed himself a riposte – he trod on Wilson's foot. Tom was skinny, but quite heavy. He pressed his full weight on Victor's foot.

Wilson gasped and tried to shove him away, but Tom was standing on his foot like a rock. Wilson pushed him. Tom pushed him too. And before Michael came running up to us, they both had crashed to the ground.

'Stand up!' Michael barked.

The two fighters stood up, brushing dust and soil off their clothes.

'Well, well,' Michael looked attentively at Tom, then at Victor. 'Now. Moysten, go back to your place. Wilson, from this moment your place is in the end of the line. Off you go.'

'What?' Victor's eyes widened in surprise.

'What you've heard,' Michael barked. 'In the end of the line. Go.'

Wilson cast a furious glance at Tom and wandered to the end of the rank. Some kids giggled as he walked past them.

'Hurry up, Wilson,' Michael urged him on.

'That was great, Tom,' I whispered with admiration.

'Yeah,' he grinned. 'His peppered tea is nothing in comparison with this.'

At that moment the director of the camp, Mr Alexander Wang, turned up on the field. He also was dressed in the same camouflage uniform.

'My dear friends,' he announced loudly. 'Welcome to Mountain Knight! I hope you'll have a good and useful time here. And I hope you'll find good friends here…'

'Rather enemies,' I muttered under my breath. Gregory, who was standing next to me, apparently heard my words and snorted.

'I hope you'll learn how to defend yourself in crisis…' Mr Wang went on.

'We've already been learning,' I muttered again.

'And I can promise you, we won't let wild and antisocial situations happen,' Mr Wang pronounced proudly.

'Oh, sure,' I couldn't help snorting at these words. Gregory dug me in the ribs. I noticed that he also did his best not to burst into laughter.

Finally the director finished his solemn speech, turned round and left the football field. Michael announced that we all were free till the lunch-time.

Tom and I wandered towards the girls and Elmo, who were standing on the edge of the field, when Wilson and his retinue stepped in our way.

'I want to speak,' Wilson said coldly.

'We don't care what you want,' I snapped and tried to round him. But one of his guys stepped in front of me.

'We said that we want to speak,' he said with challenge in his voice.

'Oh wow! See who's here!' we heard Sunny's cheerful voice. 'Victor Wilson himself! And his retinue!'

'He never goes alone,' Tom snorted.

'Maybe he's afraid,' Elmo mumbled and immediately went bright red.

Four other boys stared at Victor. They probably couldn't speak without their boss's command. Wilson seemed to think.

'Come on, guys,' he said and sauntered towards Christina. His mates obediently trailed after him.

'Tom, you're amazing!' Sunny exclaimed with sincere admiration, putting her hands around his waist and giving him a very tender glance. 'We've won this battle thanks to you!' She turned to us and noticed that we all were staring at them. 'Oh,' she mumbled, letting go of him. 'But we haven't won the war yet,' she forced a smile.

Talking, we walked away from the football field, rounded the sleeping buildings and found two nice benches underneath a big tree. We sat down on the benches, enjoying the pleasant cool shadow of the tree.

'We need to discuss what we're going to do next,' Tom said with an air of importance.

'You're right,' I nodded. 'I haven't answered for the peppered tea yet. I suggest giving him something tasty at lunch.'

'Besides, Liz and I serve in the canteen today,' Tom supported me. 'It's handy. We easily can add something into their meal.'

'But what can we add?' Sunny pondered.

'Vinegar or mustard. Or wasabi,' Tom suggested bloodthirstily.

'Oh, it's so childish,' Richelle snorted. 'How are you going to add wasabi into Wilson's meal? It will be too noticeable. And he'll think of us straightaway. You should think of something less noticeable. Something that Wilson will eat and won't understand who did that.'

She was right. Sometimes Richelle gives really smart remarks. But it was easier said than done. No matter what we'd add into Wilson's meal, he was likely to notice it and wouldn't eat.

'I know!' Tom yelled suddenly, making all of us jump. 'I know what we can do. And I guarantee the successful result.'

'If Tom guarantees a successful result, we can be sure that it'll work,' I drawled sarcastically.

'Shut up and listen,' Tom glared at me. 'My plan is easy and just brilliant. We'll add a few drops into Wilson's tea and he'll never think of us.'

'A few drops of what?' Liz asked anxiously.

'Of potassium cyanide, of course,' I snorted. 'Didn't you know, Liz? Tom is a famous poisoner.'

'Are you mad?' Richelle stared at us with horror in her blue, beautiful eyes. 'Don't you know that people die because of potassium cyanide? The management of the camp will report to the police about Wilson's death for sure. They can't keep it obscured. And it won't be difficult for the police to determine a cause of death...'

'Don't be ridiculous,' Tom waved his hand impatiently. 'No one is going to poison him. My mum put a vial of purgative into my first aid kit. It's transparent, colourless and odourless liquid. Five drops is a normal dose. I'll add twenty drops into Wilson's juice. I can assure you, he won't even notice. The purgative will affect him in five or six hours. So this superman will have to miss the party and spend the night in a less interesting place.'

'That sounds funny!' Sunny giggled.

'It's the best what we could think of,' I grinned at Tom.

'I don't know,' Liz drawled doubtfully. 'Isn't it dangerous?'

'Absolutely,' Tom assured her. 'He'll just miss the party, that's all. This purgative is absolutely safe. Mum would never give me a dangerous drug, wouldn't she? It will be our answer for the peppered tea.'

'Can you do that at lunch?' I asked.

'Yeah,' Tom nodded. 'The vial of purgative is tiny. It easily fits into my fist. No one will notice it.'

'That's great,' I grinned. 'No, honestly, Tom. It's a really smart idea.'

Tom looked around at us proudly.

'I hope it'll work,' Richelle giggled. 'Just imagine, he comes up to me at the party…'

'He won't come up to you at the party,' I interrupted her.

'But if he comes,' Tom chipped in, 'you'd better run as far as possible from him.'

'Anyway, we'll provide him a good night,' Sunny smiled.

'Not only one night,' Elmo said thoughtfully. 'Don't you understand? He won't be able to keep his so-called diarrhoea back from the doctor. And the doctor won't let him go until he's sure that this is not an infectious disease. So we'll get rid of him at least for a couple of days.'

'And his boys will be left without their boss,' I laughed. 'And then Christina will have to take Victor's place and will lead them as a widowed empress.'

'But her leadership won't be long,' Tom winked at me.

'Why?' I asked. 'She seems a quite strong girl.'

'Maybe she's strong,' Tom grinned with his most sinister grin, 'but neither she nor the rest of them are able to resist my purgative.'

'Have you two gone completely insane?' Elmo looked at us anxiously. 'If six persons come down with diarrhoeal disease, the doctors will decide that there's an epidemic in the camp. And then we'll all be examined by doctors.'

'Besides there's no point in it,' Liz supported him. 'Without Wilson these guys are big fat zero. It'll be enough to get rid only of Victor.'

'Okay, maybe you're right,' Tom agreed.

'Oh, poor Victor!' I lifted my hands to heaven in a tragic sort of way. 'What a terrible twist of fate! Oh poor, poor Victor!'

'Why am I poor?' I heard Victor's voice behind my back.

I turned round to see Victor, Christina and their mates. Victor was furious. His eyes glared at me with hatred.

'Why?' I repeated with a cheeky smile. 'Do I have to explain?'

Wilson didn't say anything to me and turned to Tom.

'Let's have a little walk,' he said dryly. 'We have something to discuss.'

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed Richelle backing away, ready to run any moment. Sunny looked at Wilson and his gang with her usual calmness. Liz and Elmo, were sitting on the bench and watching this drama with a mixture of fear and admiration in their eyes.

'He won't go anywhere with you,' I said firmly, smiling with the same cheeky smile.

'I'm not talking to _you_,' Victor snarled through clenched teeth without bothering to glance at me.

'Maybe you're not,' I grinned, 'but I _am_ talking to _you_. He won't go.'

'Is this beanpole speechless with fear?' Christina put in disdainfully.

'No, I'm not,' Tom laughed. 'I just was thinking. I can go with you if you want so much to talk to me. But I'm not sure that you'll enjoy this.'

Wilson went green with fury. 'Enjoy?' he hissed, coming close to Tom. 'Do you know what I would enjoy?'

I don't know what would have happened if Michael hadn't come running up to us, panting.

'Wilson!' he barked. 'It's half past ten! You must be in the Spanish club by now. People there are waiting for you. Off you go! Quickly!'

'We'll talk later,' Victor hissed to Tom. Then he gave me a glance full of disdain, put his hand on Christina's waist and they went after Michael. The four boys followed them.

'Oh! We should be in the swimming pool by now!' Liz exclaimed. 'Hurry up, girls!'

The girls said goodbye to us and hurried away.

'I'm going to the library,' Elmo said. 'There are so many interesting books! I'm looking forward to reading some! Are you going with me?'

'No,' Tom wrinkled his nose. 'I don't feel like reading. I'd rather find a beautiful place and sketch something. Then I'll go to prepare the operation "Quarantine".'

'Good name,' I grinned.

So we all separated in different sides. Having thought a little, I decided to go to the computer class to play there for a while. At least it will distract me from gloomy thoughts.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5. Unexpected results**

Two hours later we gathered near the canteen.

'The swimming pool is great here,' Sunny said, looking pleased. 'It's so big, and long, and there are two diving boards.

'Yeah, why don't you come with us next time,' Liz suggested.

'No, thanks,' Tom wrinkled his face.

'You're so non-sporting person,' I snorted.

'It depends on the way you look at it,' Tom protested.

'You're non-sporting any way you look at it,' Sunny grinned.

'Have you brought the purgative?' I decided to get to the point.

'Yeah, sure,' Tom nodded and pulled out a vial of transparent liquid from his pocket.

'Okay, let's go then,' Liz said. She looked pale and quite nervous. She and Tom slipped into the canteen.

'Look over there,' Sunny jerked her head to the left. 'Our good friends are coming.'

Wilson was coming towards the canteen, surrounded by Christina and four of his mates. He oozed self-importance and self-confidence. Christina was chattering, keeping her eyes on Victor. He graciously listened to her. But walking past us, he winked at Richelle. It drove me insane. Christina also noticed that of course. She gave Richelle a glance full of fury.

Wilson stopped and asked his mates, looking steadily at us, 'What's our motto?'

'Give anyone tit for tat,' they chorused.

'That's it,' Victor grinned meaningfully and opened the door of the canteen.

'Michael hasn't given a permission to come in yet,' Elmo called him.

Wilson turned around and stared at Elmo as if he saw an odd insect. Elmo's cheeks immediately went bright pink.

At that moment the door swung open. Michael was standing in the doorway.

'Come in,' he called.

We all came into the big canteen. People on duty were running in all directions, carrying trays with dishes and glasses. Our table had been already set. Two boys were serving dishes with soup.

Tom rushed past me with an empty tray. I grabbed his hand. 'Okay?' I asked.

He nodded joyfully and hurried away.

I felt a great tension inside. I knew it was just purgative, but I felt as if we were going to give Wilson potassium cyanide or something. I forced myself to keep calm and sat down at the table between Richelle and Sunny. The others seemed to feel the same. Even Sunny looked uneasy.

Liz and Tom soon joined us. They both looked pale and nervous. From time to time one of us cast a casual glance at Wilson. We just couldn't help ourselves.

As ill luck Victor didn't drink his juice. He talked to his friends first, then he said something to Christina. Then he started lazily eating his soup.

I couldn't stand it. I started eating my soup too, just to keep myself busy. It was probably delicious. But to me it tasted like savorless water or something. All what I could think about was Wilson's juice. Why the hell doesn't he drink it, a thought rounded in my head all the time.

I glanced at the others. Tom pretended to be eating soup, but the spoon in his hand was treacherously shaking. Richelle was sipping her juice, looking down at her plate. Elmo, Liz and even always calm Sunny were lazily picking up meal in their plates.

'Okay, we'll discuss it later,' I heard Victor say.

I glanced secretly at him and couldn't help smiling. Wilson was drinking his juice. To hide my excitement I also grabbed my glass and started drinking greedily. Then I felt that I was hungry as a wolf and pounced on the soup with appetite.

Suddenly Sunny snorted. I glanced at her and smiled. So did Tom and Liz. And all of a sudden we all burst into causeless laughter. I guess it was because of overexcitement.

'You're too cheerful today,' Wilson said. 'Be careful. Laughter easily might turn into tears. Hah?' he looked steadily at me.

'Fuck you,' Tom snapped.

'Be quiet,' Christina said rudely. 'Otherwise someone'll be sorry.'

'Yeah,' I grinned. 'Someone'll be sorry, that's it.'

'You got it at last,' Wilson didn't catch the real sense of my words.

'I wish some girls would get it too,' Christina looked steadily at Richelle. Victor crossly glanced at her. Richelle giggled. Christina's beautiful face went red with anger. She reached for the saucer with fruit jelly.

I tensed. The conflict was about to move into a new phase, but Michael saved us again.

'Go to your rooms!' he commanded. 'Quiet hour!'

I sighed with relief. I completely didn't feel like fighting with Wilson and his friends and then brushing fruit jelly off my hair and clothes.

'Let's go,' Richelle took my hand.

###

We left the canteen and walked along the gravel path towards the girls' building.

'We've done it,' Tom whispered excitedly.

'I was so scared,' Richelle melodramatically sighed. 'The glass of juice is on the table, but he doesn't touch it. But now it's over. Soon he'll get his.'

'Don't jump to conclusions,' Liz said doubtfully.

We reached the girls' sleeping building, when Wilson with his retinue came up to us. Christina wasn't with them this time.

'Is there something else you want to say to us?' I asked defiantly.

'Relax,' Victor grinned. 'I just want to warn you. All of you. I don't want any conflicts at the party. In fact I don't want any conflicts at all. But I don't like it when people cross my path. And my patience is already running out of.'

'And when our patience is over…' a fair-haired guy began, but Victor flatly lifted his hand to stop him. The guy went quiet.

'Anyway,' Victor went on. 'I want to give you a piece of friendly advice. People I don't like usually leave the camp earlier than the others. And…' he made a meaningful pause, 'they're lucky if they escape from here in one piece.'

Saying this, Wilson abruptly turned round and sauntered away. His retinue trailed after him.

'Poor our Godfather,' Tom shook his head tragically.

'Yeah. Life is so unpredictable,' I grinned to him. 'You feel like a master of the world, but a sword of Damocles is already hanging over your head.'

'You two count chickens before they are hatched,' Sunny drawled doubtfully.

'Relax, Sunny,' Tom winked at her. 'No one can cope with my purgative,' he said and laughed in the sinister laugh of Lucifer.

###

Time before the party we spent in intense expectation. During teatime we watched Wilson, hoping to notice symptoms of approaching catastrophe, but he was acting as if nothing was happening. He ate his piece of cake with pleasure, drank his tea, and left the canteen, accompanied by his mates. Although Tom positively said that it was too early. According to his estimates, the first symptoms would appear only in an hour or two. So we had no choice but to wait.

###

After tea time we played volleyball. That is only Sunny, Liz and I were playing. Richelle was sitting on a bench, watching us and looking bored. Elmo stood like a log all the time, from time to time attempting to catch the ball. Tom, quite the opposite, was running around the court, playing fool and cracking jokes.

Then there was dinner, which Wilson, to our deep indignation, swallowed with noticeable appetite. When Tom, who'd served dishes in the canteen that day, brought dessert, Victor remarked that he liked Tom much more as a servant. Tom listened to this with Olympian calm.

Christina for some reason wasn't at our table. Secretly from Richelle I looked around, looking for her. I thought she could sit at another table, but she wasn't anywhere in sight. I wondered where she could be.

When dinner was finished, we started enquiring Tom why Victor still felt well, to what he replied that it was too early. As he put it, it takes different time for different people to respond to drugs. And Wilson was probably one of those people, who had strong organisms.

'Okay,' Richelle said. 'I'm going to my room now. The party is starting soon. I need to prepare.'

She, Liz and Sunny opened the door of their building and disappeared inside.

'I'm going to change, too,' I said. 'I don't feel like going to the party in this costume of a mountain knight.'

'Who wants?' Tom muttered.

###

Hardly had we changed into normal clothes, when someone knocked at the door.

'Open the door!' we heard Liz's insistent voice.

Elmo went towards the door.

'Why have they come?' Tom said in surprise. 'We arranged to meet near…' he broke off. The three girls rushed into our room. They were wearing full make-up. And they'd already changed for the party and made hairdos.

'You, stupid killer,' Liz rushed over to Tom. 'Do you know what you've done?'

'What?' Tom gaped at her.

'Whom were you supposed to poison?' Sunny demanded.

'What are you talking about?' Tom's eyes darted from Liz to Sunny.

'You, crude killer!' Liz angrily grabbed Tom's shoulders and started shaking him.

'Tom, answer please, whom were you supposed to poison?' Sunny slowly repeated with threat in her voice.

'Hey, what's going on?' I put in.

'Nothing is going on. It has already happened,' Richelle replied. 'And it happened because of our wonderful poisoner.'

'Has Wilson died?' Tom's face paled. He slowly sat down on the edge of his bed. 'But…What…'

'Wilson is going around safe and sound!' Liz shouted. 'He looks stronger and healthier than a mule!'

'But Christina was sent to the doctor with suspicion of acute dysentery,' Sunny added.

'And the girls from next room said that she had spent at least two hours in the toilet before that,' Richelle said meaningfully.

'What?' my jaw dropped.

'It isn't my fault,' Tom said immediately. 'I dropped the purgative into Wilson's glass.'

'Why then Victor feels absolutely well, while we can't say the same about Christina?' Richelle asked.

'How would I know?' Tom shrugged. 'Maybe it's a coincidence.'

'A coincidence?' Liz stamped her foot.

Then the girls more or less clearly told us what had happened. Hardly had they come into their building, when Marina came running up to them and asked about their health. She was in panic. She said that Christina Anderson had been sent to the doctor because of diarrhea. She would have to spend a few days in a separate room. But if analyses confirmed dysentery, Christina would be sent to the hospital in the city. And the camp probably would be closed till the end of investigation.

Having listened to this, we all stared at each other in dismay, trying to understand how such a mistake could happen.

'I think Tom just put the purgative into the wrong glass,' Sunny suggested.

'I'm not a fool,' Tom started to defend himself. 'I counted the chairs and put the glass of purgative juice right on Wilson's place.'

'Victor and Christina could change places,' Elmo said. 'Does anyone remember where they sat at lunch?'

None of us remembered that. We all were too busy hiding our nervousness.

'I'm afraid that Elmo's right and they changed places,' I sighed.

'But I still think that it's a coincidence,' Tom didn't agree again. 'The drug couldn't affect her so quickly.'

'If you put twenty drops of purgative instead of five, it easily could affect her so quickly,' Liz objected.

'I just don't understand why you're so disappointed,' Richelle cheered up suddenly. 'I am personally glad. We wanted to get rid of one enemy. We've done that. Actually I don't care who it is, Victor or Christina. Now we have one less enemy to worry about, that's the point.'

'Besides I still think that it's a coincidence and Victor will come down soon, too,' Tom still hoped.

'We'll see,' Sunny wasn't so sure. 'We'll see.'


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6. Party**

Soon we heard sounds of music and left the room.

The night was quite warm, so the party was on that huge ground behind the canteen. On our way there, Richelle told that she heard that Jigger, a very popular DJ from the city, had been invited to this party today.

'Oh, wow,' I cheered up. 'The party is going to be hot!'

'Yeah, Jigger is cool,' Liz nodded.

'Who is this Jigger?' Elmo asked.

'I can't believe that you don't know! Elmo, on which planet do you live?' Richelle exclaimed. 'Jigger is one of the most famous DJs in the city!'

'I know nothing of him,' Elmo shrugged indifferently.

By the time we reached the ground behind the canteen, where a lot of kids and counselors had already gathered, the music had faded. A middle-aged woman in a flowered dress came onto a small stage. She took a microphone and shrieked into it, 'good evening, dear friends! I'm glad to greet you!'

'Is it your Jigger?' Elmo's jaw dropped in sincere astonishment. 'But why does he wear a female dress?'

'No, you dope, it's not Jigger,' Liz laughed. 'It's a woman.'

'Unfortunately your beloved Jigger wasn't able to come,' the woman announced joyfully. 'But it doesn't matter, anyway! We'll have a good time even without him! Right?'

The crowd disappointedly murmured something in reply. People here obviously had another opinion about it.

Mr Wang, the director of the camp, came onto the stage. This time he also had changed the Mountain Knight costume on blue jeans and dark grey shirt. He held a guitar in his hands.

He took the microphone from the woman and solemnly declared the party open.

Then he fixed the microphone on the stand, took his guitar and started singing a song about a brave and proud mountain knight, who always was ready to struggle for kindness and fairness.

'Is it an anthem of this camp?' I snorted.

'Okay, he sings quite well,' Tom wrinkled his nose. 'But when will the real party start?

'Hang on,' Elmo lifted his hand. 'First of all we should check Wilson's state. And if he's okay, we should discuss what we're going to do.'

'What for?' I shrugged. 'I personally don't care what he is going to do'

'Don't you?' Elmo looked at me steadily. 'Don't you understand that Christina is sick? She won't come. So there's nothing what can stop Victor from hitting on Richelle.'

I stared at him. He was completely right. I hadn't thought about this case scenario before.

Mr Wang finished singing his song. The woman in the flowered dress took the microphone again.

'Now, waltz!' she announced solemnly.

'Waltz?' I repeated with a wistful sigh. 'But…' I broke off, because my words were muffled by loud music.

The woman grabbed Mr Wang's hand and dragged him to the dance floor. They started to swirl around the dance floor, dancing waltz. No one else joined them.

'Stone Age,' I muttered disdainfully.

'Stone Age, or not, but our good mates are coming,' Tom sighed.

He was right. Wilson was coming towards us.

'May I ask you to dance with me, miss,' he came up to Richelle.

I was shocked. That was too much. But before I could say something to him, Richelle smiled sweetly and saying, "sure", gave her hand to him.

My jaw dropped. I just stood there, looking at them. I didn't expect such a betrayal at all.

'Oops,' Tom raised his eyebrows, looking sideways at me. 'What an unexpected turn of events.'

Richelle and Victor, meanwhile, were swirling around the floor in waltz, attracting everyone's attention. Everyone was staring at them. And I couldn't blame them. No matter how much it hurt me, I couldn't help admitting that their dance was really fascinating. For the first time in my life I regretted that I'd never learnt ballroom dances.

'How beautiful,' Liz sighed. I glared at her. 'I don't understand why she agreed to dance with him,' she mumbled, avoiding looking at me.

'Nick, there's no need to be jealous,' Sunny put her hand on my arm. 'I'm sure that she just wants to find out if Victor feels stomachache.'

It was torture for me to watch them. I felt like a complete idiot and loser. I wonder if that was because Richelle was dancing with another boy or because she was dancing with Victor Wilson.

Finally the music faded. Richelle and Victor stopped at the centre of the dance floor while people around were applauding. Wilson led Richelle to us and immediately went away, without even glancing at me.

'Richelle, how could you?' Liz hissed, flicking her eyes at me.

I ostentatiously turned my back on them.

'Hey, do you know another way to find out his state?' Richelle took my hand.

I didn't even glance at her. Just shrugged my shoulders in reply and didn't say anything.

'So, I think that it's starting,' Richelle said to the others. 'At first he was dancing quite well. And chattered something in my ear endlessly. But then he stopped talking, his face became pale. He even trod on my foot two or three times.'

'His face was almost green when he led you back here,' Sunny added.

'If his face became green, it means that it's starting,' Tom said cheerfully. 'You'll see, he'll leave the party soon.'

He was right in it. Soon we noticed that Wilson disappeared. His retinue weren't anywhere in sight either.

'I'm telling you, it started,' Tom repeated for the hundredth time.

The party, meanwhile, continued. After waltz they started to play normal modern music. Boys and girls were dancing everywhere.

Then the woman in a flowery dress shouted into the microphone, "Ladies' choice dance!" A pretty girl came up to me, and smiling sweetly, asked if I wanted to dance with her. I agreed. But immediately I felt a sharp twinge of conscience. I didn't want to hurt Richelle. Deep inside I realised that she didn't mean to offend me. She just wanted to find out Wilson's state, but all the same, jealousy and offence were burning me, I couldn't resist it. That was why I put my arms on the girl's waist and pulled her closer to me. She didn't resist. Quite the opposite, she was smiling playfully, chattering something.

I secretly glanced at Richelle. She was standing, looking at us. There was a mixture of offence and incomprehension in her eyes. I felt twinges of conscience again. Oh, it's so silly to quarrel with Richelle because of Wilson. But at the same time I couldn't forget her dance with him. The girl was chattering something in my ear with her arms around my neck. I half listened to her, using every opportunity to glance at Richelle. For a few seconds I lost sight of her, but soon I found her. She was dancing with a guy, who tried to put his hands on her ass all the time. My heart filled with offence and jealousy again. I hugged tighter the girl's waist.

I noticed that Tom was dancing with Sunny. He wasn't a good dancer. He trod on her feet all the time and looked around over her head. I can't help smiling, looking at them. They looked quite amusing. Very tall Tom and very short Sunny.

Liz was dancing with Gregory. To my astonishment Liz danced quite well. I'd say she danced almost as good as Richelle did.

Elmo didn't dance. He was standing aside, looking uncomfortable.

Finally the song finished. I led the girl back to her company and smiled at her, trying to ignore her friends, who were giggling meaningfully. She kissed me on the cheek. I smiled again and before she could think of something what I didn't want her to think, I went towards the others and came up to them right at the moment when the guy kissed Richelle on the cheek and offered to dance a next slow dance. I felt a new surge of jealousy rising in my chest, but I tried my best to hid my state and be as cool as a fish. At least outside.

By ten o'clock the party was in full swing, but neither Wilson nor his mates turned up.

'Okay, I can imagine why Victor is missing,' Liz said anxiously. 'But where are his friends?'

'Maybe it's a real epidemic here?' Richelle looked at us with serious alarm in her eyes.

'Don't worry,' Sunny sighed. 'I'm sure that there's no any epidemic. But I don't like that all of them are missing. It's weird. And suspicious.'

A guy who had danced with Richelle came up to us. 'Rich, what about one more dance?' he suggested.

'Um…no,' she said, looking sideways at me. 'Not now. I'd like to take a walk with my friends.'

'Oh, okay,' the guy drawled disappointedly. 'See you tomorrow then.' He sighed and walked away. I looked gloomily after him.

'Let's try to find them,' Elmo suggested.

We decided to split up. I know it was dangerous in this situation, but it was the only way to examine the huge territory of the camp. So Tom and Sunny went off to examine the place near the gym; Liz and Elmo went towards the football field; and Richelle and I sauntered up the path past the canteen.

We both walked in silence. Finally we went over to our building. All windows there were dark.

'They're not here,' Richelle said.

We walked further. In the girls' building the lights were on in some windows.

'Can Christina be really sick?' Richelle shook her head in bewilderment. 'But how did Tom manage to infect her?'

'Maybe he has a bacteriological weapon in that vial, not a purgative,' I muttered grimly.

We walked around the camp for a while, but didn't meet Victor or his friends. While going past the football field we met Liz and Elmo. They asked if we had found out something. We replied that we didn't hear or see anything. They said that they had the same result. We went towards the gym to find Tom and Sunny, but they weren't anywhere in sight. We walked around the gym two times, examined basketball and volleyball courts, but didn't find them. Richelle suggested returning to the party, because Tom and Sunny could have gone there, but they weren't there either.

Liz seriously started to worry. She repeated over and over again that Wilson and his mates could meet Tom and Sunny, and do something to them to warn the rest of us. Knowing about Tom's habit to put his foot into his mouth and ask for troubles it was a quite possible suggestion, but I didn't believe that even all Wilson's mates could get the upper hand on Sunny. She could defend herself and Tom. So there must be another explanation.

Elmo agreed with me. Richelle suggested that Tom and Sunny just had decided to have a little walk. Then she added that she wasn't going to wander around the camp at night, looking for them, and that it was time to go to sleep. But Liz didn't want to hear us. She was almost in panic, saying again and again that something terrible must have happened to them. To calm her down we decided to walk around the camp one more time.

Going past the gazebo, we heard a muffled giggle. We turned off the path and as noiselessly as we could, we crept up to the gazebo. What we saw there made my jaw drop. Liz, Elmo and Richelle didn't looked better.

Tom and Sunny were there. Tom was sitting on the bench, Sunny was on Tom's lap. They were kissing so passionately that didn't notice anything around. Sunny's T-shirt was lying on the bench; Tom's hands were on her ass.

For a while we were speechless, just stood there staring at them with our jaws dropped. Then Liz gave a muffled exclamation "Sunny!"

Sunny squealed and jumped from Tom. She grabbed her T-shirt and started pulling it on. Tom tried to smooth his tangled hair. They both looked incredibly embarrassed and apologetic.

'We were…' Tom began, but broke off.

'I told you that there was something between them!' Richelle smugly whispered to me at the same time. Liz blushed and looked away.

'Liz, I can explain,' Sunny exclaimed. But Liz abruptly turned round and ran away. Sunny dashed after her. 'Liz, wait,' she shouted.

Richelle rolled her eyes. 'What for all these secrets?' she asked Tom. He mumbled something in reply. Even in the darkness I could see that he was bright red. Tom and Sunny. I couldn't believe this. Why the hell didn't they tell us? Conspirators!

In full silence we went back. The party had been already finished by this time. Groups of kids were going here and there to their sleeping buildings. Liz and Sunny weren't anywhere. Tom and Elmo looked quite worried. They talked to each other in low voices. I was silent. I had too many personal problems with Richelle to think about Liz and Sunny. After all if Sunny and Tom didn't want to tell us about their love affair, they probably had reasons for that, and I couldn't understand why Liz took it so seriously. At last we reached the girls' building and stopped.

'See you tomorrow,' Richelle said to us without looking at me.

I coldly said goodbye and went up the path towards the next building. Tom and Elmo soon caught up with me.

I walked in silence, thinking. Everything had become too difficult. We all quarreled right at the time when we should keep together. Now it will be more difficult for us to fight with Wilson and his friends. He's likely to notice that we're not so strong as we were several hours ago. But I just couldn't let Wilson get the upper hand on me.

But what if I won't win this game? A sudden thought crossed my mind. Why do I think that I'm better than Wilson or anyone else? I know, I always had a big ego and I always thought too much of myself. But what if I was wrong? What if I'm not so cool and smart as I want to think?

I shook my head. No, I shouldn't think like that. I shouldn't give up.

Tom and Elmo didn't say anything to me as we walked. Finally we came into our room and closed the door. Tom switched on the light. Still thinking, I started to pull the quilt off my bed. What I saw there made me scream and jump back.

'What's up?' Tom and Elmo stared at me.

'See for yourselves,' I faltered, backing away until I pressed my back against the wall.

A disgusting, stinky, rotten piece of snag was lying on the bed sheet. Fat worms and grubs wriggled and crawled on the snag. Some of them had already spread all over the bed.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7. Night adventures**

'Ew! That's disgusting!' Tom shivered. The next moment he rushed to his bed and abruptly pulled off the quilt. His sheet was clean. Elmo's bed also was empty.

'So it means that this present is specifically for Nick,' Tom said in a low voice. 'I guess this is a warning.'

I didn't answer, still pressing my back against the wall. I felt like throwing up when I thought that I could lie into bed with these disgusting worms.

'Okay, guys, everything's okay,' Elmo said firmly. 'Fortunately we've found it before Nick got into bed. Now. Let's take it away before the worms spread all over the room.' He opened his wardrobe, took a big, plastic bag and handed it to me. I guess he wasn't going to do this work for me. Well, I couldn't blame him.

Stifling the urge to vomit, I carefully put the abhorrent snag into the bag and tied it tightly. But there were a lot of worms and grubs still wriggling on my sheet. Elmo and I carefully folded the sheet and shook worms out into the open window. Then we examined other parts of my bed and the floor underneath it. Fortunately there were no insects there any more. But the bedsheet was still wet and dirty. No way was I going to sleep on it. I grabbed it and stomped over to the door, intending to demand the replacement, but Tom stopped me.

'Wait,' he grabbed my hand. 'Don't be in a hurry.'

'I'm not going to sleep on it,' I snapped.

'I don't suggest sleeping on it,' Tom winked at me. 'I've got a better idea.'

I must have stared at him, because he grinned all over his face.

'You'll wash your sheet tomorrow, quietly and without attracting anyone's attention,' he said. 'This night you can sleep with Elmo, or with me. But tonight…' he made a meaningful pause, 'what do you think of returning this present to the presenter.'

I felt my mouth stretch into a broad smile. Yeah, that was just a brilliant idea.

###

We decided to wait till midnight to be sure that all people in the building were asleep. We sat in silence for a while, then I asked Tom, how he and Sunny could keep their relationship a secret. He shrugged.

'Sunny didn't want you all to know. She asked to give her some time.'

I nodded. I felt almost the same when Richelle and I started dating. It was quite weird at first. But Richelle and I are another matter. We'd always been close, even before we started work with Teen Power Inc. So it was just a matter of time that we finally understood our feelings and what we both wanted. But Tom and Sunny… they're so different.

'How long have you been dating?' I asked.

Tom didn't answer.

'I'm speaking to you, Moysten,' I went on.

Silence again.

'Are you deaf?' I crossly stood up and came up to his bed. Tom was asleep.

'Some people are incredibly unreliable,' I muttered. 'Right Elmo?'

The next moment I found out that Elmo also was asleep. I felt that my eyes were about to close against my will, so I started pacing back and forth the room, keeping myself awake. Some floorboards slightly squeaked under my feet.

'Be quieter,' I heard Tom's sleepy voice. 'I can't sleep because of you.'

'Oh, great,' I shook my head indignantly.

I sat down on my bed, grabbed my cell phone and went online to kill time.

###

As midnight drew nearer, I woke Tom and Elmo up.

'Ohh, to get up in the dead of night because of stupid worms,' Tom stretched.

'Don't go if you don't want to,' I snapped.

'We'll all go,' Elmo was already at the door. 'We'd better go there barefoot,' he said to me. 'It'll be much more noiseless.'

Tom and I nodded and pulled our joggers off.

'Here we go,' I whispered, grabbed the pack and quietly left the room. Tom and Elmo were close behind me.

We reached the door of Wilson's room. Elmo was left in the hall to watch. Tom noiselessly opened the door and we came in. Three persons were peacefully lying in their beds.

'They're asleep,' I whispered in Tom's ear.

He nodded and put his finger to his lips. We came over to the first bed and Tom gingerly lifted the blanket. But instead of legs there was only a folded jacket. Tom and I stared at each other. Then we examined the two other beds. There was nothing except folding jackets either.

'They've gone out,' Tom whispered.

'At this time of night?' I came over to the window. It was open. 'Oh, I see,' I grinned. 'Then we'll leave a little surprise for them.'

Saying this, I closed the window and twisted the handle into position "Closed". Then Tom and I examined the room so as to work out which of the three beds was Wilson's. Finally we decided that his bed was the one nearest the window. Tom pulled the blanket off the bed. I dumped the snag with worms and grubs on the bed, and we covered it with the blanket, shivering in disgust.

Then we returned into our room.

'I wonder where they went to,' I said, coming up to the window and staring out the night. Suddenly a crazy idea floated into my mind. 'How about looking for them?' I suggested, turning to the others.

'Nick, don't go insane!' Elmo glanced at me severely. 'You perfectly know what will happen if someone catches us.'

'No one will catch us,' I objected. 'We'll be careful.'

'I still think that it's a bad idea,' Elmo shook his head. 'There's no point in risking.'

Tom's eyes darted from me to Elmo. You could see he hesitated. On the one hand he didn't want to be caught, but on the other hand, he liked to risk.

'Hey, listen,' I coaxed them, 'okay, suppose that someone will spot us…'

'They're likely to spot us,' Elmo hissed. 'I'm sure that surveillance cameras are installed on every pillar in this camp. The guards will spot us straightaway.'

'Hang on!' I held my hand up. 'There are no cameras here. Firstly, we would see them. And secondly, Gregory said that Wilson and his retinue often spent their holidays here. So if there were cameras here, they would know about it and wouldn't go out at night.'

'That's right,' Tom breathed loudly. 'Hey, I suggest risking. If we find out the enemies' plans, we will be able to wreck their dirty tricks.'

'Oh okay, let's go,' Elmo sighed, showing his feet into his joggers. 'But I still don't like this.'

We put on our footwear and sweatshirts, and climbed out through the window. Then, hiding in the shadow of trees and bushes, we examined the football field, the gazebo, the ground behind the canteen and a few other places, but didn't meet Wilson or his mates.

'Maybe they are beyond the fence,' I suggested.

'Maybe,' Elmo nodded. 'But we won't go there. Okay, let's go back. I'd like to get some sleep.'

Hiding in the shadow of trees, we headed for the sleeping buildings. Our dark green and camouflage clothes helped us to stay unnoticeable. Finally we reached our building, but our window was on the other side of the building. Bent double, we crept along the wall. We almost reached the end of the building, when Tom, who was going close behind me, tripped over something and grabbed my shoulder, trying to keep his balance. I rocked with fear, lost my balance and we both toppled into prickly bushes. To our unhappiness, there was a metal barrel with two spades and other garden implements behind these bushes. The barrel overturned with a terrible, resounding noise. I wailed with pain. Tom pressed me into the bush. Its thorns scratched my hands and neck.

'What are you two doing,' Elmo hissed.

'It stings,' I groaned, trying to pull the thorns off my palm.

'Damned spades,' Tom was crawling out of the bush, crackling with branches.

'Shut up, you both!' Elmo growled through gritted teeth. 'Run! Hurry up!'

He helped us to our feet. By this time the lights had been on in many windows. We could hear approaching voices. Bent double, we rounded the building and ran over to our window. Luckily it was still open, so we at least could be sure that no one had learnt about our night walk. One by one we climbed into the room and closed the window. Then we hastily pulled off our clothes. I rolled up our jackets and sweatshirts, put them on my dirty bed and covered them with the quilt. Then I jumped into Elmo's bed. The next moment the door quietly opened a crack and Michael peered in.

'Moysten, you're a clumsy idiot!' I couldn't help muttering when Michael closed the door.

'You both were told to shut up,' Elmo suppressed the possible argument between us. 'You've woken up the whole camp. Isn't that enough? You'll get us thrown out, don't you understand that?'

'Because of Moysten we have to do sport exercises in the dead of night,' I grumbled, still panting because of so fast running.

'Anyway, I can't say that our holidays here are boring,' Tom grinned.

'Shut up and sleep,' Elmo growled.

I sighed and turned over. It was a strange experience to sleep in one bed with Elmo. It was so embarrassing. I moved as far as possible from him and closed my eyes.

###

Gradually the camp went quiet. But not for long. Hardly had I fallen into a doze, when I was jerked awake by the horrible shrieks. We sat bolt upright in our beds. My heart thudded loudly. There were muffled voices and sounds of steps behind the door. We pulled on some clothes and ran into the hall. A lot of boys had already crowded there and talked in excited voices.

Michael came storming out of Wilson's room and ordered everyone back to bed.

'What happened?' Tom whispered

'Someone put a rotten snag with worms into Victor's bed,' a spotty guy said with an evident satisfaction. 'He and his friends went out at night and when they returned, they found their window closed. So they started tapping at other windows, asking to let them in. Michael noticed them, but they told him that they just wanted to breathe some fresh air. I don't know if Michael believed them or not, but he ordered them to go to sleep. And I don't know how it happened, but Wilson lay down straight on this rotten snag and worms and, of course, screamed.'

'What did Michael say?' I asked with a grin.

'Wilson didn't say about the snag to him,' the guy replied. 'He said that he just hit his toe against something in the darkness.'

'How many times do I have to repeat?' Michael barked. 'Go to sleep!'

Giggling gaily, we came into our room and closed the door. Then we set up the defensive barricade again and crawled into our beds. This time I fell asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow.

###

But no one managed to sleep in this building that night. Soon we were woken up again by a deafening noise that would have woken even the dead.

Elmo jumped first. I tripped over him in the darkness and tumbled onto the floor. A second later Tom leaped out of his bed and cannoned into me. Then we all stared at the door.

The barricade was broken. Wilson was standing in the doorway, his eyes wide in surprise. He was holding a plastic bag in his hand. For a few seconds we just stared at each other. Then Victor realised that his little joke had failed, and tried to sneak out of the room, but right at this moment Michael turned up behind his back.

'So? What's going on this time?' he growled.

'Our bag with stuff overturned,' Tom replied.

'I see,' Michael said grimly. 'But what are _you_ doing here?' he grabbed Wilson's shirt-collar.

'I just went to the toilet and must have chosen the wrong door,' Victor answered calmly.

'Oh, is that so?' Michael said in an icy voice. 'What's that, then?' he quickly grabbed the plastic bag from Victor's hands. He glanced inside and pressed his lips together. 'What's that?' he repeated coldly.

I couldn't help smiling. This time Wilson was really deep in trouble.

'So, Victor, we're waiting for your answer,' Michael went on. 'What were you doing here with this?' he raised the packet to Wilson's nose.

Victor didn't answer. 'What's there, Michael?' Tom asked with fake astonishment.

Michael lifted the packet to Tom's face. 'Ew!' Tom's face twisted in a natural disgust.

'Okay,' Michael sighed. 'You,' he looked at Wilson, 'follow me. You three,' he turned to us, 'go to sleep. And I don't want to hear about overturned bags till the end of night.'

'Yes, sir,' Tom saluted like a soldier. A faint smile crept onto Michael's face.

'Go to sleep,' he said more friendly. 'You follow me,' he barked to Wilson, turned round and left the room. Wilson cast a furious glance at us and trailed after him. The door closed.

We switched off the light and crawled into our beds. It was already four thirty. I felt awfully tired, but at the same time I was happy. We caused troubles for Wilson. Real troubles.

'I'm sure that he won't let us get away with it,' Elmo said as if he read my mind. 'And I'm afraid we'll be sorry.'

'Don't worry, Elmo,' Tom grinned. 'I'll pour more purgative into his glass tomorrow. It must affect him.'

'Are you serious?' Elmo sat bolt upright. 'Don't you understand that if he also is sent to the doctor with diarrhoea, they'll decide that it's a real epidemic in the camp?'

'And besides, we shouldn't repeat,' I put in.

'Yeah, you're right,' Tom agreed. 'Otherwise I can begin to enjoy the process and will become a maniac, who poisons anyone with a purgative.'

'And then we'll have to call you Tom the Ripper,' I giggled.

'Not Ripper, you'll have to call me Tom the Poisoner,' Tom corrected me.

'Shut up, you both,' Elmo muttered. 'It's almost a dawn already. I want to get some sleep.'

He didn't have to say twice. Tom and I went quiet and soon we all fell asleep.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8. The fight**

The next morning we met the girls at their building on our way to the canteen. The three of them were grim and silent. They said "hello", hardly glancing at us.

'Nick, we need to speak,' Richelle whispered in my ear. She took my hand and hauled me aside. 'You look awful,' she said anxiously looking at me. 'Listen, if it because of my dance with Victor, I didn't mean…'

'No, we just had a sleepless night,' I sighed and briefly told her what had happened to us last night.

'So they got what they asked,' she said gaily when I'd finished. 'Serve them right.'

I shrugged. Richelle didn't seem to understand. I wonder how she would feel if someone played this trick with grubs and worms with her. 'What's this about Liz and Sunny?' I asked after a pause.

Richelle rolled her eyes. 'Nothing interesting,' she snorted. 'As it turned out, Tom and Sunny have been dating secretly. Can you imagine this? Sunny and Tom! It's hard to find more different people than these two!'

'So?'

'So, Liz is also in love with Tom,' Richelle rolled her eyes. 'I really can't understand the problem. Okay, Tom is with Sunny. So what? If Sunny wants to have a clown as a boyfriend, she can have him. But Liz can find someone much better. There's no sense in making this soap opera.'

'Brinkley,' Marina came running up to us, 'you are to serve in the canteen today. Hurry up, please.' She tore Richelle from me and pushed her to the canteen.

I returned to the others. They stood near the canteen, looking uneasy. Elmo, red with embarrassment, was telling the girls about our night adventures. Tom put in some details from time to time. For once he was rather quiet, not even trying to crack jokes. Liz and Sunny faintly smiled. Before Michael turned up, we had told the girls almost everything what had happened last night.

'It's going too far,' Liz said to me as we walked into the canteen. She looked really worried. 'Who knows what else they can think. I'm afraid we made a big mistake when we got into this fight. Listen, maybe we should… tell Michael everything?'

I looked at her attentively. For once Liz wasn't smiling. Quite the opposite, she looked very upset and… lost.

'How are you?' I asked in a sudden impulse of feelings. Liz and I have never been close friends, and I never spoke with her about private life, but this time she seemed to need someone to talk.

'I'm fine,' she faintly smiled. 'Really, I'm fine.'

I shrugged. If you say so, I thought.

###

Breakfast was dull and dreary. Tom, Elmo and I lazily picked up the meal on our plates. Liz and Sunny ate in silence. Christina's chair was still empty. Wilson pushed his plate away and slowly sipped his coffee.

'The coolest guy in the camp doesn't look well,' Tom said suddenly. He was speaking in an even tone, but I knew his words were addressed to Victor. I couldn't help supporting him.

'And he doesn't pay any attention to Richelle,' I drawled.

'I don't understand why,' Richelle said in the same tone. 'Did I do something wrong?'

Wilson demonstratively turned away from us.

'Hurry up,' Michael came over to our table. 'You all must be on the football field in twenty minutes. We're having a meeting.'

###

When we arrived at the football field, other campers had already gathered there and were sitting on the benches. Wilson and four his mates were standing in front of them next to Michael.

On seeing us, Victor gave us a so furious glance that all my joy disappeared. His look clearly was saying that it wasn't the end yet.

Michael ordered us to sit down on a bench. 'So,' he said. 'Last night these five young men tried to leave their rooms. Fortunately I prevented this effort, otherwise they all would have been sent home. But Victor Wilson didn't stop at one crime. An hour later he came into the room that belongs to Zimmer, Moysten and Kontellis. And the more, in his hands he held a packet with a rotten snag, which swarmed with disgusting insects. I think I know for whom this snag with insects was meant. Now. Wilson deserves to be sent home, but we discussed it with Mr Wang and Marina and decided just to punish him. But this is the first and the last time. Remember, if anyone is caught wandering around at night, they'll be sent home straightaway. Now. About punishment. You,' he turned to Wilson, 'will wash floors in your building in all rooms. As soon as you finish, you'll go to the football field to get rid of extra energy. Is it clear?'

Wilson went bright red and mumbled something.

'Speak louder,' Michael said coldly without even looking at him. 'Is it clear?'

Victor didn't say anything.

'Okay, I think it's clear,' Michael nodded. 'Off you go then. You'll find a bucket and a mop in the laundry-room in the cellar.'

Some kids giggled. Wilson demonstratively turned away. 'Come on, guys,' he said to his friends.

But Michael gave another blow to our enemy. 'You wash the floors on your own,' he said immediately. 'The other four boys will water flowers and clean the territory of the camp.'

Victor froze for a while, then proudly raised his head and marched towards the sleeping buildings.

'The meeting is over,' Michael said.

All kids wandered in different sides.

'I feel sorry for him,' Liz sighed as we walked slowly along the path.

'You'd better feel sorry for yourself,' Tom grinned. 'Wilson will never forgive us for this public humiliating. So. What are we up to today?'

'I have to wash my bedclothes,' I sighed.

'I can help you,' Richelle glanced at me slyly.

'Okay,' I smiled, not able to resist her charm.

After that we all went our separate ways. Sunny suggested Liz take a walk, Elmo headed for the library. Tom went off, whistling and intending to find good places to make a few drawings. Richelle and I took my dirty bedclothes and headed for the girls' building. We decided to use the girls' laundry room so as not to attract someone's attention. And besides, the last thing we wanted was to meet Wilson while he was washing the floors.

There was quite modern equipment in the laundry room, so it didn't take long for us to finish washing. All what I had to do was put my bedclothes into the washing machine, add some washing powder and switch on the program. I quickly did these manipulations and turned to Richelle, who was sitting on a chair, filing her fingernails and thinking about something.

'We don't have to sit here while the machine is washing,' I said. 'What do you want to do?'

'You are going to the gym with Sunny and Tom in an hour,' Richelle said, glancing at the big clock on the wall.

'I know,' I twisted my face. It was a quite hot day and I really didn't feel like sweating on exercisers. I put my hands on Richelle's waist and pulled her towards me. 'I'd rather stay with you,' I whispered in her ear. She gently kissed me.

'Let's go to the football field,' she giggled, arching backward a little. 'Maybe Wilson is already there.'

I liked the idea. I took Richelle's hand and we headed for the football field. Wilson and Michael were there. Michael was slowly going back and forth in the centre of the field. Victor was jogging along the athletic track.

'Faster,' Michael shouted from time to time.

Richelle and I watched them in fascination for a while. Victor had jogged one lap, then the second lap, then the third one.

'He looks as if he can fall any moment,' I grinned.

'Ooh! Better don't fall when this Michael is in such a mood,' Richelle shivered.

'Halt!' we heard Michael bark. Victor stopped. 'Don't stand like a log,' Michael shouted. 'Take a deep breath. Breathe out. Walk slowly. Arms up! Arms down! Up! Down! Up! Down!'

Wilson slowly walked along the athletic track, waving his arms.

I took Richelle's hand and pulled her away from the football field. I thought that it was stupid to stand there where Michael could spot us. We found a bench further down the path and sat down on it. It wasn't far from the football field. From there we were able to watch Wilson and Michael, without attracting their attention.

'Up! Down! Up! Down!' we heard Michael's icy voice. 'Halt!' suddenly he barked. 'Stand still!'

Wilson stopped upright, his arms dangling limply at his sides.

'Do push-ups! ' Michael ordered. Victor fell down and started doing push-ups.

'Come on,' Richelle stood up. 'I don't want to see how Michael is torturing Victor any more. You know, I wouldn't want even my worst enemy to be punished by Michael.'

'He deserved this,' I started getting mad again.

'Anyway, you should make a conclusion,' Richelle said seriously. 'If you want to leave your room at night, you must be very careful.'

I grinned. We wandered down the path. The football field was already far behind, but we still could hear Michael's commands. Wilson was told to jog again.

'I arranged to go to the swimming pool with Liz,' Richelle said, stopping by the girls' building. 'So you can go to the gym with Sunny and Tom.'

'Oh, okay,' I sighed. 'See you later then.'

Richelle nodded, kissed me and disappeared behind the door.

###

The next two hours Tom, Sunny and I spent in the gym, where Sunny made us do different exercises. By the end of the training I was completely wiped out and felt as if I was going to die, though most of time I spent walking around the room and arguing with the coach what was good for me and what wasn't. Tall, skinny Tom tried his best to work hard, like Sunny, but he didn't look happy at all.

Finally when I felt that muscles on my arms were about to tear apart, I climbed off the exerciser, but Sunny noticed it and immediately pointed at a bench for abdominal exercises.

I groaned that I was born for mental work, not for physical, but Sunny just laughed. The coach also added fuel to the flames, saying that "my natural abilities are quite suitable". For what my natural abilities were suitable he didn't point out, though. But he recommended me a hard work in the gym.

I mumbled something and wandered towards the locker room. The coach grinned and encouragingly clapped me on the shoulder so hard that I nearly fell.

'Come here tomorrow, mate,' he said. 'I'll work out a special program for you. You'll see, by the end of your holidays here, your body will have become strong and athletic. Girls will run after you.'

'They already do,' Tom sneered.

'Fuck off,' I snapped.

The coach laughed. 'We'll change your body,' he went on. 'We'll make a new Arnold Schwarzenegger of you.'

Tom and Sunny burst out laughing. Without saying a word, I turned round and wandered to the men's locker room to have a shower.

When I went out of the shower into the locker room, Tom was there.

'So, Schwarzenegger,' he slapped me on the shoulder and laughed again.

'I'm not going here any more,' I muttered, pulling on my camouflage T-shirt and dark-green jeans. 'My body perfectly suits me. There's no reason to change it.'

Tom grinned all over his face and disappeared in the shower, sniggering to himself.

###

We met Elmo, Liz and Richelle near the swimming pool.

'Christina's got well,' Liz said as soon as we came up to them. 'The doctor said that it was just a stomach upset. Not an infectious disease.'

'It means that someone added the purgative into a wrong glass,' I snorted. Tom pouted instantly and mumbled something.

We came over to the girls' building for Liz and Richelle to leave their swimsuits and towels in their room, and then hurried to the canteen. No one wanted to make Michael angry. When we arrived there Wilson and his friends were standing beside the door. Victor turned round abruptly and came close to me. He looked like a listless, spongy balloon, from which the air was let out.

'Listen to me, Kontellis,' he hissed, leaning close to my face. 'You'd better go away from here as soon as possible. Otherwise one of you will leave this camp in the ambulance.'

Frankly speaking my stomach turned over as he said it. Wilson was in a fury. His threats weren't just empty words. He easily could do something to Richelle or to Liz or to any of us if he met us alone, except maybe for Sunny.

'Do you understand?' he hissed again.

I forced myself to look calm and smiled one of my special, infuriating, superior smiles. 'Now _you_ listen to me,' I drawled. 'You look so tired that I'm afraid you can fall any moment. Have a little rest first. Then we'll speak.'

Victor's face twisted with rage. He pitched forward and abruptly shot his fist out towards my face, intending to punch me. I ducked to the side. Afterwards I wondered how I managed to do that. I guess it was a reflex. Anyway I escaped being punched in the face. Liz and Richelle squealed. Michael immediately came running to us.

'I see you still have extra energy,' he growled, grabbing Wilson's shirt collar. 'Very well. After the quiet hour we'll continue our exercises on the field. Now. Go to have lunch. Quickly.'

He said this quite loudly. All kids around us could perfectly hear his words. Some of them were grinning; others were giggling and nudging each other.

Michael opened the door and went into the canteen. We all trailed after him. When we sat down at our table, Victor leant to me again.

'You'll all answer for that,' he hissed. 'I promise.' Then he turned away and started eating his meal.

I also began eating, thinking rapidly. Wilson was up to something. He seemed to have a plan. And I was sure that we'd be sorry.

###

'Now we'd better go to our rooms and have a little rest,' Sunny commanded when we went outside after lunch. 'Otherwise Michael will make us join Wilson on the football field.'

'And we'll be doing evening set of exercises in the open air together with our "good friends",' I laughed. Though I didn't feel like laughing at all.

'Come on,' Elmo sauntered towards our sleeping buildings.

###

In two hours the siren called us for tea. Tom, Elmo and I locked the door and headed for the exit. In the common room we met Wilson and four of his friends. They stood together near the window, obviously waiting for us. We glanced at one another and tried to leave the room, but Wilson and his friends stepped in front of us.

'I told you to go away, didn't I?' Wilson hissed.

'Get out of the way!' Tom flipped him off, trying to squeeze past him.

'Well, I warned you, but you ask for troubles,' Victor growled angrily and hit Tom on the cheek. Tom abruptly turned round and punched Victor in the eye.

Before I knew what was happening, two of Victor's guys pounced on me, wrestling me to the ground; the other two attacked Elmo. The next moment we all were on the ground fighting for our life. At first we weren't very successful. I couldn't handle with two guys single-handed. Tom and Elmo, who never had been good at fights, weren't having much more luck with their rivals either. But soon we got an unexpected support. Gregory and a few other guys, who were going past to the canteen, saw us and immediately joined the fight. Now we had the edge on them. Victor also received a few supporters, though – several bullies, who didn't want to be left behind.

The scuffles and yelps attracted other boys, some of them were standing, looking at the fight and shouting; other ones joined the fight. So when several minutes later Mr Wang, Michael, Marina and a couple of other counselors came rushing into the room, the fight turned into a serious battle.

'Stop that!' Michael barked. The others were just standing, looking around the battle field in dismay.

Of course none of us obeyed. We were too busy punching each other to listen to Michael's commands.

'Stop!' Michael roared. The others rushed to separate us.

'What does it mean?' Mr Wang looked around at us severely when the fight finally was broken up. 'Have you all gone mad?'

No one answered him.

'Don't worry, Mr Wang, I'll deal with it,' Michael said, his voice icy. 'You all go to the canteen,' he growled through gritted teeth to us. After tea time you all are going to the football field. As I see Victor isn't the only one who has extra energy. Off you go now.'

We glanced at each other, and rubbing our sore places and brushing dust off our clothes, we all wandered to the canteen.

###

The rest of time before dinner Tom, Elmo, Gregory, I and other boys who'd taken part in the fight, spent on the football field, repeating Wilson's destiny. Wilson himself also was there, of course. Michael squeezed us dry. We jogged, leaped, did push-ups and abdominal exercises. Michael let us go only ten minutes before dinner.

Having entered our room, Tom, Elmo and I fell onto our beds and were lying motionlessly for a while. I felt like a squeezed lemon. Then we had a shower in turn, and wandered to the canteen. The girls were there when we came tottering over to our table and flung ourselves on the chairs. I looked at my soup in disgust and pushed the plate away. Listlessly and slowly I chewed my roll and drank two glasses of juice. I didn't feel like eating. Firstly, I was completely exhausted. And secondly, my whole body was aching because of bruises and exercises.

But despite my state, I felt a sort of satisfaction, because our enemies didn't look better.

###

Finally torturing dinner was over. Michael said that we'd had enough for the first time and that we could be free. So we went out of the canteen and slowly wandered along the path, intending to go as far as possible from Wilson and his friends.

That evening was quite gloomy. I was awfully tired. So were Tom and Elmo. Liz and Sunny didn't say a lot to each other or to any of us. We walked around the camp for a while, listening to Richelle's chatter, and then went to our rooms. Michael had successfully got rid of our extra energy. I hardly had enough strength to have a shower and to crawl into bed. As soon as my head touched the pillow, I immediately fell into a deep sleep.


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9. The girls' secret**

The next morning I woke up, feeling even worse than the day before. My body was aching all over because of bruises and cuts, all my muscles were aching because of exercises. Every move of my parts was torturing. Tom and Elmo didn't seem to feel better. The bruise on Tom's cheek became bright purple. Elmo's nose was still a little bit swollen.

Wandering around the room like zombies, we slowly got dressed and headed for the canteen. The girls were already there. Liz and Sunny were standing near the porch, listening to Gregory, who chattered gaily.

'Hi,' we came over to them. 'Where's Richelle?' I asked.

Liz and Sunny glanced at one another in a strange sort of way.

'She's over there,' Liz reluctantly waved her hand to somewhere aside. I glanced to where she was pointing and my jaw dropped. A little way off, underneath a big tree, Richelle and Victor Wilson were standing together, chattering like good friends. I looked around for Christina. She also was here, with her friends. She arrogantly looked around at kids. But expression on her face didn't fool me. Pretending that she didn't care, she watched Richelle and Victor with obvious anger in her eyes.

Christina turned to her friend and told her something. Then she noticed that I was staring at her. I wanted to look away, but for some reason I didn't do that. Neither did she, though. For a while we stared at each other. Then Richelle came up to us and distracted me.

'Hi,' she kissed me, smiling innocently. 'How do you feel today?'

Right at that moment Michael threw open the door of the canteen and beckoned to us. Emphatically indifferently I came inside and sat down on my chair.

'He just said that our war should be over,' Richelle whispered in my ear. 'And offered to walk together. I said no. That's all!'

I shrugged and didn't say anything.

'Do you believe me?' Richelle insisted.

I silently stirred my coffee. 'Yes, I do,' I nodded finally.

Richelle smiled and turning to Liz, began to talk to her. I ate my breakfast in full silence. Wilson offered to finish the war? Oh yeah, sure. I didn't believe it at all. Wilson isn't one of those people who give up so easily. He must have a plan.

Or maybe I'm becoming too insane?

###

After breakfast Tom offered to go to the swimming pool. I supported him. I thought that after all these events it would be great to have a swim in the morning together. But Richelle firmly shook her head.

'Sorry,' she said. 'Liz, Sunny and I have already had plans for this morning.'

'What plans?' I asked.

'It doesn't matter,' Richelle replied vaguely. 'We need to go somewhere.'

'I'm going with you,' Tom said, amorously looking at Sunny.

'No,' Richelle protested. 'We need to go on our own.'

'Where do you need to go?' Tom asked instantly.

'Stop enquiring us, will you?' Richelle gave him a heavy glance. 'We're friends, but it doesn't mean that we should do everything together. We won't tell you anything now. It's a secret.'

'Since when do you have secrets from us?' Elmo looked suspiciously at the girls.

'Don't be so boring,' Richelle rolled her eyes.

'But he's right. What secrets?' I felt a surge of jealousy raising in my chest again. I didn't understand why the girls couldn't tell us where they were going to. What for these secrets?

'Oh, boys,' Richelle sighed coquettishly. 'You're impossible.'

'There's nothing to worry about. We…' Liz began to explain, but met Richelle's severe glance and broke off. 'We…need,' she faltered. Unlike Richelle, she never could say a firm "no".

'Come on,' Sunny walked up the path. 'I have to do something before lunch.'

Richelle kissed me. 'See you at lunch,' she cooed, and grabbing Liz's hand, hauled her after Sunny.

Tom, Elmo and I exchanged glances. Apparently I wasn't the only one who was stunned by the girls' behaviour. Elmo was frowning. Tom gloomily looked after the disappearing girls.

'They're odd today,' Elmo said thoughtfully, running his fingers through his hair, which he often did when he was upset or worried.

'They're up to something,' Tom nodded. 'It's Richelle's fault,' he turned to me. 'I'm sure it was her who got Liz and Sunny into it. They both behaved as they had never done before.'

It was quite hurting to hear these words, but I had to admit that he was right. Neither Liz nor Sunny had ever behaved like that. Neither had Richelle, though. At least with me. We had a good, equal relationship. Of course we seriously quarreled sometimes, but Richelle had never kept anything from me. Even before we started dating, we'd told each other everything. I always knew about her problems, dreams and successes. What did change? The answer was obvious – Victor Wilson.

I shook my head and returned to the reality.

'There must be a reason of this behaviour,' Tom was saying to Elmo. 'Let's follow them to see where they're heading.'

'But it's wrong…' Elmo tried to object. But he was outvoted, because I was on Tom's side for once. I just needed to know where the girls were going.

Keeping well back we followed the girls. Soon we understood that Tom had been right saying that Liz and Sunny were led by Richelle. She kept telling them something, meaningfully gesturing. They went past the football field, the sport courts, the gym and finally reached the fence. Then they came up to a small, neat building. Richelle knocked on the door, which immediately threw open. The girls came inside. The door slammed behind them.

We came closer to the building. "Ideal" was written in big red letters on the sign that was hanging on the wall of the building.

'What the hell ideal?' Tom grumbled.

Elmo calmly came up to the door and knocked. A middle aged woman opened the door and stared at us in bewilderment.

'Can I help you?' she asked.

'We want to come inside. Our girls are here,' Tom said, moving Elmo aside.

'Your girls?' the woman repeated in surprise.

'Yeah. Can we come in?' Tom made an effort to squeeze past the woman into the building. But she barked that we weren't allowed to come in and slammed the door right in front of Tom's nose.

We glanced at each other. We weren't allowed to come in. But why the girls were allowed then? And the more, it was obvious that the girls perfectly knew where they were going and that they would be allowed to come in.

'I think I know what's there in this building,' Tom suddenly broke the silence.

Elmo and I turned to him.

'Tell us then,' I demanded.

'It's a dating agency,' Tom said importantly. 'Girls and boys look for their ideals here. That's why the girls didn't want to tell us about this place.'

'That's right,' Elmo's face fell in disappointment. 'Yeah, you might be right.'

I had to admit that Tom had a point, even though his version was quite fancy and unbelievable. I felt my heart fill with offence and jealousy.

'I don't understand,' I shrugged. 'That's ridiculous. Okay, let's suppose that they want to have other friends. But why didn't they just go and find other guys? What for and why to lie to us?'

'They're girls. They're crazy. All girls are like that,' Tom muttered, looking as if he'd had plenty of experience of female cunning.

'Or maybe it's not a dating agency at all? Maybe the girls are in trouble?' Elmo suggested. 'They were without us all day long yesterday. Who knows what they were doing.'

'You might be right,' Tom rubbed his chin. 'That's all because of your Richelle,' he glared at me as if it was my fault that the girls had gone without us.

'I'm sure that it's because of your Sunny,' I retorted. 'She pokes her nose into everything.'

'Sunny's not a fool to look for boyfriends in such places,' Tom objected.

'Are you saying that Richelle is a fool?' I growled.

'They both are fools,' Elmo broke in. 'Why the hell did they go there? Okay, I understand about Richelle and Sunny. But why did _Liz_ go with them?'

'Aha!' Tom and I exclaimed indignantly. 'So you think that Liz is cleverer than Richelle and Sunny?

'Of course she's cleverer,' Elmo nodded. 'Sunny thinks only about sport and Richelle thinks only about her looks. That's stupid and selfish. Liz isn't like them.'

'Listen, guys, maybe we are wrong and it's just aerobics or dance classes here?' I said, shaking my head in disbelief.

'Aerobics and dance classes are only in the gym,' Elmo objected gloomily.

'I wonder what they have been doing there for so long,' Tom stared to worry. 'Can they be acquainted with someone already?'

'Why not,' I mumbled.

Two guys of our age came up to the building. They both somehow managed to talk over the cell phones and with each other simultaneously. Pressing their phones to their ears they knocked on the door of the mysterious building and went in without problems.

'It would be very funny if our girls have a date with these phone guys here,' Tom murmured.

We stood there for about half an hour, watching boys and girls went in and came out of the building. Then Elmo said that he was sick of waiting and we wandered away.

###

I left Tom and Elmo, saying that I wanted to go to the computer class to play for a while. But in reality I just wanted to be alone. I went past the canteen, reached the football field, where little kids were playing football. A few older guys and girls were jogging laps on the running track. I sat down on a bench in the shadow of a spreading tree and stared blankly into space.

Why did Richelle do that? I thought. Maybe I went too far at that party? Maybe she was offended with me because I danced with that girl? But she herself danced with Wilson. How she thought I would react? Gradually my offence started to replace with irritation. I can do what I want to do after all. And I'm not going to adjust myself to her and humor all her whims.

Oh, fuck you, Richelle, I thought angrily in the end. If she wants a new boyfriend, she can have one. I don't care.

But deep inside I acutely realised that I did care about it. And it hurt me so much. A guy and a girl walked past me, hand in hand. I sadly watched after them.

My cell phone buzzed. I pulled it out from the pocket and glanced at the display. It was Richelle.

'What?' I said, lifting the phone up to my ear.

'Nick, where are you?' I heard Richelle's voice. 'We are looking for you everywhere.'

'Oh, is that so,' I muttered, trying to sound indifferently.

'Yeah. Why are you talking like that?' Richelle sounded astonished.

'How like that?' I asked.

'You sound… um… strange,' she replied. 'What's up?'

'I think you know it better,' I said.

'Me?' she exclaimed. 'Nick, I don't understand…'

'Oh, never mind,' I interrupted. 'I think it isn't your problem already.'

'What do you mean?' Richelle exclaimed.

'I mean that nowadays only a full idiot can dream about trustworthy, unselfish girlfriend,' I mumbled.

'What?' Richelle screamed. 'What are you talking about?'

'I'm talking about that place where you were looking for your ideals,' I said coldly.

'How did you know about "Ideal"?' there was indignation in Richelle's voice. 'Did you follow us?'

'So what?' finally I lost my temper. 'What else could we do? You go somewhere and don't tell us where you go. What could we think?'

'Oh, I got it,' Richelle sighed with relief. 'You're pouting because we didn't tell you where we were going to.'

'I'm not pouting,' I snorted.

'Yes, you are,' Richelle giggled. 'Nick, that's so childish.'

'Listen, Rich, you're free to do everything you want,' I grumbled. 'You can take up with other guys and everything. I don't care.'

'Call me when you chill out,' Richelle said coldly and hung up.

Well well, I thought furiously, staring at my phone. Yeah, what a good excuse for a quarrel. Now it's me, not she, who is guilty.

###

I was sitting on the bench with my eyes closed, trying to calm myself down, when someone sat down on the bench beside me. I opened my eyes to see Tom and Elmo. Tom held a huge packet of chips in his hand. I wonder where he managed to find it here.

'What's up?' Tom said with his mouth full.

'Have you already seen the girls?' I enquired.

'Not yet,' Tom replied, loudly crunching on chips.

'I had a little talk with Richelle,' I said with dramatic pathos.

'So?' Tom crammed another handful of chips into his mouth and loudly crunched.

'Stop crunching,' I shouted.

'I can't,' Tom put the new handful of chips into his mouth.

'Let him eat,' Elmo waved his hand. 'What did Richelle tell you?'

'She quarreled with me on purpose and hung up,' I shared my personal tragedy with them. God, who could have imagined that I would share my private problems with Tom and Elmo. How desperate I must have been at the moment.

'Maybe she's already found a new boyfriend,' Tom grinned, licking salt from his fingers in that irritating way he always did. 'And she might like the guy. Otherwise she wouldn't quarrel with you.'

'I don't understand your joy,' I muttered, trying hard to restrain myself from throwing his chips into the litter bin.

'Why should I be sad because of your Richelle?' Tom shrugged, rustling his packet as he pulled out some chips. 'I have enough problems with Sunny. You've got to sort things out with Richelle on your own.'

'You seem to forget that Sunny went there with Richelle,' I said vindictively. 'How do you know, maybe she also likes her aspirant.'

On hearing this Tom choked. 'It's your fault,' he pointed at me accusingly.

'Mine?!' I stared at him indignantly.

'Yours,' Tom went on. 'You must have offended Richelle. Or she's just sick of you, or she doesn't want to be with you any more. That's why she went to look for another boyfriend. And made Liz and Sunny go with her.'

'Why would she be sick of me? I didn't do anything!' I protested.

'That's what _you_ think,' Tom said meaningfully. 'But she might have been offended with you because of that girl at the party, you'd danced with. Or because of something else.'

I shook my head, still refusing to accept his theory.

'You know, you're far from a nice person, Nickers,' Tom continued lavishly rubbing salt into wounds in my heart. 'It's quite difficult to endure your obnoxious nature. It must have been irritating her day after day, month after month. And finally, in one nice morning, Richelle realises that she's sick of you and that it's time to find someone new.'

'And you call this morning nice?' I glared at him.

'Well, if you want, let's call it a terrible morning,' Tom agreed. 'But it doesn't change the facts. Richelle decided to find someone new, and dragged Sunny and Liz along with her.'

I felt my heart sinking down and down. How could Richelle do it with me? Why? At that moment my phone buzzed again. It was Richelle.

'What else?' I said into the phone, trying hard to keep my voice even.

'Are you still pouting?' she asked.

'Me? Not at all,' I snorted with feigned indifference.

'Don't make such a big deal out of it,' Richelle pleaded. 'We didn't do anything wrong. We just didn't want you, boys, to know about it. Oh, okay! The truth is that we went to nutritionists and cosmetologists so as to look better and maybe to lose some weight.

'What?!' I babbled. 'Why on earth do you want to lose weight?'

'Not why. What for!' Richelle went on. 'There will be a beauty contest on the last day of the holidays here.'

'What?!' I breathed. 'How did you know?'

'I know,' Richelle lowered her voice. 'Yesterday I accidently overheard the conversation between Mr Wang and our counselors. They don't like our war with Wilson and your fight and all this stuff. So they decided to keep us busy so as to distract us from fighting. As a distraction they're going to have a beauty contest among girls of our age. But before they plan everything properly and solve all problems, no one will know about it. That's why we decided not to waste time and to do something to become more slender and beautiful by the contest.'

'Oh… But… I think you don't have to do anything like that,' I murmured. 'I think you've got a perfect body.'

'Not so perfect as you think,' Richelle giggled coquettishly. 'But it can become better. By the way, what did you talk about a dating agency or something?'

'I talked?' I pretended to be astonished. I thanked my lucky star that we were speaking over the phone and Richelle couldn't see my blushing face, which I think was as red as a tomato. Now when she told me their secret, the theory about the dating agency seemed an incredible nonsense.

'Yeah, you did,' Richelle was saying. 'You talked about a dating agency and about other boyfriends.'

'That's not me. It was Tom, who told this,' instantly I shifted the blame on Tom.

'Oh, I see,' Richelle giggled. 'Okay, where are you? We are coming.'


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10. Unexpected turn of events**

By the time the girls came up to the bench where we'd been sitting, I had told Tom and Elmo what I'd found out from Richelle. They both seemed relieved.

'Hey! Hey! Let me look at you,' Tom started leaping around the girls as soon as they turned up. 'How much weight have you lost already?'

'Oh, don't be ridiculous,' Sunny waved him off. 'I'm not going there any more.'

'Well, I'm going to,' Richelle objected. 'You know, there were so many professionals in different spheres. They examined us from head to foot and worked out a special program for each of us,' she went on dreamily.

Sunny rolled her eyes. 'Okay, I'm going to the gym. Tom, Nick, are you with me?'

I groaned. 'My whole body is hardly moving because of yesterday exercises,' I moaned. 'Besides, my body perfectly suits me. So I'm out.'

Judging by Tom's face, he didn't feel like going to the gym either, but he couldn't miss the chance to be with Sunny for a while, so he agreed. They went off together, hand in hand. Liz watched their retreated backs sadly. Obviously trying to distract her, Elmo suggested going to the library, where some geeks were about to discuss a book. Liz agreed. I walked with Richelle to the dance class and then went to my room.

I lay down on my bed, thinking about all events that had happened since the morning. How could we be so stupid to think that the girls went to the dating agency? As if they weren't able to find other boyfriends without it. For Richelle it's easy. And maybe for Sunny, too. She's pretty, and besides, she's an athlete.

I took my phone and went online to distract myself from unpleasant thoughts. I was exchanging messages with a friend of mine, when I heard a knock at the door.

I got up and opened the door to see, of all people, Christina Anderson, who was smiling slyly at me. Nervously I looked over her head around the corridor, expecting to see Wilson.

'Relax,' Christina giggled. 'I'm alone. Can I come in? I just want to speak.'

I nodded and stepped aside, letting her in. She came into the room and sat down on my bed, picturesquely crossing her legs.

'Oh, cool phone,' she grabbed my mobile phone, I'd left on the bed.

I sat down on Tom's bed, waiting for her to get to the point. At first Christina chattered about something for a while. Then she sat down on Tom's bed closer to me. Her skirt raised a little, baring her legs.

'I don't like this situation,' she said at last, looking straight at me.

'What situation?' I asked.

'This situation,' Christina smiled at me coquettishly. 'I don't like your girlfriend.'

'Well, I don't like your boyfriend,' I said.

'But they seem to like each other,' Christina said meaningfully.

'Rubbish,' I snapped.

'No, it's not,' Christina objected. 'That's why I suggest taking measures before it's too late.'

I looked at her attentively. Now I understood the aim of her visit. She was convinced that Richelle and Victor were about to start dating and that we should separate them.

'I think we should do something for them to hate each other once and for all,' Christina went on. 'Then Vic will be mine. And your Richelle will stay with you.'

'Richelle will stay with me in any case,' I snapped. 'I have no reasons not to trust her.'

Christina raised her eyebrows and glanced at me attentively. 'Is that so?' she drawled. 'Why then before breakfast you looked at her the way you did?'

I shrugged vaguely, making it clear that the conversation was over.

Christina crossed her legs, letting her skirt raise and bare her leg even more than before. I looked away, rapidly thinking that I'd better finish the conversation. It was nearly lunchtime. All I need now, I thought, looking at Christina, who was chatting playfully, is for the others to come. Of course as soon as this thought crossed my mind, the door flew open and the five of them came in. Christina turned to them.

'Oh, hi,' she said with a cheeky smile. Then she turned to me again. 'We'll speak later, Nicky,' she said playfully and put my phone into my hands. Then she stood up, and marched past the others with her nose in the air. They parted to let her pass.

I kept sitting on the bed, twisting my phone in my hands, expecting the storm and not knowing what to say.

'How charming,' Richelle said flatly at last, her voice icy.

She's jealous, a thought flashed through my mind. So it's still not too late to save everything.

'What did she want?' Sunny asked.

'Nothing,' I shrugged. 'Just to… chat.'

'Since when have you been chatting with her?' Richelle said coldly.

I wanted to tell her that Christina practically asked me to help her to make Victor stay with her, but instead, against my will, I said that she suggested walking together while her boyfriend was busy.

'Oh, awesome,' Richelle pressed her lips together. Then she abruptly turned round and went out of the room.

Liz gave me a furious glance and ran after her. I noticed the others exchange glances. Sunny rolled her eyes. Tom whispered to Elmo something about how easy everything had been before. Then they all stared at me enquiringly.

'She didn't suggest anything like that!' I exploded. 'She's just afraid that Wilson can leave her for Richelle. So she wanted me to help her to separate them.'

'Why then did you say it?' Sunny demanded.

'I don't know,' I murmured, then I squeezed past them and into the corridor, intending to find Richelle to explain everything to her.

I came into the girls' building, but their room was empty. At that moment I heard the siren wail, calling for lunch. So I went out of the girls' building and headed for the canteen.

###

Lunch was a very quiet thing. Richelle and Sunny exchanged places, so Richelle was sitting far from me. During whole lunch she didn't say a word to me. Wilson, grinning, occasionally glanced from me to Richelle. Christina did the same.

Tom cracked jokes endlessly, trying to relax the atmosphere. Liz desperately tried to draw us into light, unconstrained conversation.

After lunch it was the "quiet hour" time, so we all had to go to our rooms. While Tom and Elmo were playing cards, I was lying on my bed, thinking how I could mend the situation. My pride didn't allow me just to go and apologize. But on the other hand, if I don't do something, we'll certainly break up.

###

After the "quiet hour" we came up to the canteen to have tea. Michael was already there and let us in. As soon as we came in, Christina came up to us, and having ordered Tom and Elmo go further, she hauled me aside.

'So? Did you think about my offer?' she asked.

'There's nothing to think about,' I hissed. 'Stop getting me into troubles, will you? Pay more attention to your boyfriend instead.'

I noticed Liz, Sunny and Richelle coming in, and rushed after them, leaving Chris alone.

'Hey! Hurry up!' Elmo yelled as soon as he noticed us. 'Otherwise Tom'll eat everything.'

He was right in it. Tom had already eaten all his doughnuts and tried to sneak the doughnuts from other plates. Elmo bravely pulled the plates away from Tom.

'Don't touch it,' he shouted at Tom. 'It's not yours! It's for the girls!'

'I'll take just one, or maybe two doughnuts,' Tom attempted to grab the doughnut from the plate. 'The girls won't eat them all the same. They're on a diet!'

'Let him take mine,' Sunny grinned. 'I don't like doughnuts.'

Tom happily grabbed two Sunny's doughnuts and swallowed them in no time. Richelle didn't react to my presence at all. 'You can eat my doughnuts too,' she said to Tom in a contorted voice.

'Thank you,' Tom immediately grabbed her doughnuts and sank his teeth into them. Jam squeezed out over his fingers and drop on his T-shirt.

Richelle took her glass of juice and sat down at another table. Liz sighed and followed her. The next moment Sunny also stood up and sat at their table.

Forcing myself to stay calm, I pushed my plate away.

'Are you going to eat the rest of your doughnuts, Nickers?' Tom asked immediately, looking at my plate with hungry eyes.

'Here you are, Guts,' I rolled my eyes, but pushed the plate over to him.

Tom just murmured something in reply, happily pushing my doughnuts into his mouth.

###

That evening was quite dull. It was raining and the night was cold and wet. Liz and Richelle went to the movie theater. Tom and Sunny were in the girls' room. I don't know what they were doing, but we didn't see them that evening. And it was so strange to know that our friends, who we'd known for years, were not just friends any more.

Elmo and I played billiards for a while, then we settled down in the common room of our building, watching TV and talking with Greg and other boys.

###

The next morning we met the girls on the way to the canteen. Liz began chatting how wonderful the movie they had seen yesterday was. Sunny and Tom went together, hand in hand. Richelle didn't tell me anything, but at least she stopped giving me glances full of offence.

She seems to calm down, I thought with relief. I should try to set things right with her today. It's really stupid to quarrel because of such trifles.

Having come up to the canteen, we saw a big crowd on the porch. Kids clustered by the door, excitedly talking and pointing at the big sheet of paper, which was hanging on the wall near the door. Tom adroitly screwed into the crowd and several minutes later he flew out of the crowd, tangled and rumpled.

'Wow!' he shouted excitedly. 'Richelle was right. On the last day of holidays there will be a beauty contest, followed by a costume party.'

We glanced at each other. It was good news. Really good news.

At that moment the door of the canteen flung open and the counselors came out.

'Breakfast,' they shouted.

During breakfast everyone discussed the coming beauty contest and costume party. There was no kid in the whole camp who wasn't excited of it. Even Christina and Victor were too busy chatting about it and didn't pay attention to us. The costume party didn't impressed Richelle very much, but the beauty contest was another matter, of course. She chattered endlessly that she, Sunny and Liz must do their best to win the contest. She even seemed to have forgotten her resentment against me.

'I'm sure that there will be a dance competition. Nick, you will be my partner,' she said in a tone that didn't admit any objections or arguments.

I shrugged vaguely. I didn't feel like going on a stage and dancing in the beauty contest, but as I'd said, I was going to do anything for the peace.

###

That day there was a meeting, devoted to the beauty contest and costume party. All girls who wanted to take part in the contest were to fill in questionnaires of contestants.

Liz absolutely refused to take part in the contest. She was too shy for that. But Richelle managed to convince Sunny to join her. I knew Richelle very well, and I had a feeling that she needed Sunny only for a company; she didn't perceive Sunny as a real rival, and I could understand it. Sunny's quite pretty, but she's too short, she wears minimal cosmetics and doesn't actually care how she looks. Richelle, unlike Sunny, really had a lot of chances to win, or at least to become one of the two princesses.

In that meeting we learnt that the contest would incorporate four parts: erudition, knowledge of history and literature competition; evening gown competition; floral design competition; and talent competition, where every contestant had to perform their talents.

The beauty contest will be followed by the costume party. Marina said that in a few days a lot of costumes of all sizes would be brought in the camp from the city, so everyone would be able to choose a costume. Or we could make our own costumes. In the middle of the party the beauty queen and two princesses would select the best and ingenious costume and the winner also would receive a prize.

###

'We should take this contest seriously, Sunny,' Richelle repeated over and over again that night, when we all gathered in the girls' room. 'We can't let Christina Anderson win and become the queen. Anything but it!'

Sunny heavily sighed and rolled her eyes. 'I can't believe I let you draw myself into it,' she murmured.

'It's too late to regret,' Richelle said. 'Tomorrow after breakfast we're going to the dance class where Marina and other counselors will be teaching us to walk on stage, to dance and all that stuff. Don't forget that, please.'

'How can I forget if you've been talking about it all the time,' Sunny muttered.

'I wonder when they will bring costumes for the party,' Liz broke in. 'I don't know who I want to be yet.'

'Well, I'm not dressing up,' Richelle said firmly.

'Why?' asked Liz. 'Marina said that everyone was supposed to wear a costume, remember?'

'Everyone, except for the queen and the two princesses,' Tom sniggered. 'Richelle probably thinks that she'll be the beauty queen and that's why she won't have to wear a costume. Well, it's pretty silly to be so sure, if you ask me.'

Richelle glared at him. Sunny nudged Tom in the ribs. 'Don't drive her more insane,' she whispered in his ear.

'No, I agree that Richelle has a nice appearance,' Tom shrugged. 'But the girls will be judged on not only an appearance, but also on other qualities. Besides, Sunny is also good-looking. And so are a lot of other girls. Christina Anderson for, example. She's a bitch, I know, but she's really good-looking. And I think she has a lot of chances to win.'

'Christina?' Richelle choked. 'This…reddish scank?! It's a wonder she was allowed to take part in the contest, let alone to win!'

'No,' Tom insisted. 'She's got a beautiful face, and fair body and long thick hair. I'm telling you, she'll win at least the title of one of the two princesses.

'What?' Richelle jumped to her feet. 'So, you, idiot, are going to vote for Christina?'

'First of all, I'm not an idiot,' Tom snapped. 'And secondly, we live in a democratic country, so I can vote for any candidate I want.'

'See?' Richelle turned to us, accusingly pointing at Tom. 'We nourished a viper in our bosom! Traitor!'

'I'm not a traitor,' Tom went on arguing. 'I just face the facts, which you, Richelle, refuse to accept. Yeah, I agree that Christina is a bitch, but she's quite good-looking and you can't change it. And I'm not the only one in our gang who thinks like that.'

Richelle turned to me; her face red with anger. 'Do you also think that Christina has many chances to be the queen?' she demanded.

'Hey, don't shout at me!' I exclaimed indignantly. 'I didn't say anything about Christina at all!'

'But you do think that she's good-looking, don't you?' Richelle's eyes narrowed as she glared at me.

'It seems to me that we got off the subject,' Elmo put in cautiously, luckily for me. 'We gathered here to discuss costumes for the party.

While he was saying this, I grabbed Tom's shirt-collar and whispered in his ear, 'shut up! Don't you see the state she is in? Don't drive her insane!'

Tom wriggled free. 'I was just telling my opinion,' he grumbled. 'And, all the same, I'm going to vote for Sunny.'

Sunny grinned. Richelle pouted and turned her back on us.

'Let's go back to the point,' Elmo suggested, trying to fill the awkward pause. 'Liz, what about if you would dress like, say, Snow White? I could be your dwarf then.'

'Yeah, good idea, Elmo,' Tom nodded vigorously. 'It could be our team costume. Liz is Snow White. The rest of us, except for Richelle, can dress like dwarfs. The prize certainly will be ours!'

'Yeah, Tom, you more than any of us look like a dwarf,' I drawled. 'Such a small, quiet dwarf.'

The others couldn't help giggling. Tom was nearly two meters tall, very skinny and more than a head taller than our future Snow White.

'I don't know,' Liz said doubtfully. 'I want to make my own costume.

'So do I,' Tom immediately changed his mind. 'That's even better. The prize will be only mine then.'

'Oh, yeah, dream on, Moysten,' I drawled.

We discussed the costumes and the party and the contest until Marina ordered us to get out of the girls' room. The whole evening Richelle was a bit quiet, probably because of argument with Tom. She knew that she was worthy to be the beauty queen. But no matter how much she hated to admit it, Christina also was worthy of it. And maybe Sunny. And other girls. So I guess even she realised that the struggle would be hard.


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11. A date with Christina**

When we came up to the canteen the next day, we saw Gregory standing at the door and studying the advertisement about the beauty contest for the hundredth time.

'Hi,' he smiled at us. 'Great, huh?' he jerked his head towards the advertisement. 'Listen, Liz, I heard you won't take part in the beauty contest. Why?'

'Um…that's not for me,' Liz shrugged. 'I feel uncomfortable on the stage.'

'Oh. Do you have a pair to go to the party then? How about going with me?' Greg suggested.

'Um… sure, why not,' Liz smiled shyly, glancing at Tom sideways.

I noticed that Elmo stiffened and looked daggers at Greg under his eyebrows.

'By the way,' Greg went on chattering, not noticing Elmo's glance. 'I heard that prizes for the contest and party are going to be cool. Computer, laptop, mobile phones, stereo music system and a lot of little prizes.

'I'd like to win a mobile phone,' Tom drawled dreamily.

'I'd prefer the stereo system,' Gregory said. 'Mine is quite old.'

'I'd like to receive a new laptop,' I put in.

'You, boys, seem to want to win the beauty contest yourselves,' Sunny giggled.

'It's discrimination, you know,' Tom agreed. 'They might do something for boys too.'

During the conversation we came into the canteen and sat down on our chairs. Victor Wilson, Christina and the others were already there.

Richelle whispered to me something about Christina. She said it loud enough for Christina to hear. Of course, Chris heard her words. She glared at Richelle, but didn't say anything, realising that she wouldn't win the argument. Victor's lips twisted into a sinister grin. But he didn't say a word either. They just looked away and started eating breakfast.

###

The next several days were quite calm. Wilson and his mates avoided us; they didn't even look at us while passing by. But I could see the hatred in Victor's eyes. It was obvious that he and his friends were up to something.

Of course we couldn't possibly avoid each other completely. We met in the canteen or in our sleeping building or in the sport courts, and couldn't help saying something nasty to each other, but it didn't go further. Sometimes I noticed Victor staring at Richelle sideways, but every time when he met my eyes, he immediately turned away and started saying something to his friend. I felt uneasy at these moments. What if he was going to do something to Richelle?

Sunny also was worried. She repeated over and over again that she didn't like their behaviour. Their indifference to us was too suspicious.

Unlike Sunny and me, Tom was careless as ever. As he put it, if Wilson tried to do something to us, he'd got troubles again.

Liz and Elmo weren't so air-headed, but they both considered that if we didn't provoke Victor, everything would be okay. As for Richelle, she thought about nothing but the beauty contest.

###

As Marina had promised, two days after the meeting, the management of the camp brought a lot of different costumes for the party. For about an hour we all paraded around the room and between hangers with the costumes, and posed in front of the mirrors. At last I chose a costume of a pirate.

I guess I would have had enormous success with women in eighteenth century, I thought, looking at my reflection in the mirror. I have to say I was pleased. I did look good in this grey pants and dark purple jacket and white shirt. And I liked myself even more when I put on the pirate hat and bandana with beaded braids.

Elmo at first wanted to dress like a ghost – that is to put on a white bed sheet with holes for eyes so as no one would recognize him. But Liz convinced him to take a costume of a dwarf, saying that under this mask no one would recognize him all the same.

Sunny took a costume of a black cat, which suited her perfectly, I have to admit. Little, slender, athletic, with smooth, black hair, she was a graceful catwoman.

Tom and Liz didn't choose anything, explaining that they were preparing their own costumes. Richelle chose a costume of a princess, though she did it only because she had to take something. She seemed to be already dreaming how Mr Wang is putting a silver tiara on her head and what she would say to the audience as a new beauty queen.

To my happiness, Richelle'd changed her mind about dance with me. She decided to dance with a professional dancer, and, like most of other contestants, she had been spending all her spare time in the dance room, rehearsing.

Since that day when we'd learnt about the beauty contest, I hardly saw her more than two hours a day. She'd been visiting dance classes, "Ideal", spa and other places; classes, where the girls practised walking and turning on the stage, changing and smiling and answering the questions of the jury and so on.

Sunny occasionally attended these classes too. She didn't take the contest seriously. You could see her more often in the gym or on the football field, or in the swimming pool than in dance class. This girl is mad.

Liz and Tom had been making their costumes. Elmo hung around in the library.

I felt really bored. From time to time I went to the computer class, or to the library with Elmo, or to the swimming pool with Sunny, or to roller-skate with Greg. But it didn't make me feel better.

More and more I missed Richelle. And I think it means something.

###

Two days before the contest something weird happened. After dinner Richelle went to the dance class; Tom, Liz, Elmo, Sunny and I were in the girls' room. Sunny and Elmo were helping Liz to sew the dress for the party; Tom was busy with papers, bandages and plenty of pieces of fabric, making his costume. I sat on a bed, aimlessly watching them. Suddenly my mobile phone buzzed. I pulled it out of my pocket and glanced at the display. Unknown number.

I raised the phone to my ear and answered.

'Hi!' I heard a cheerful female voice, which seemed very familiar. For a while I tried to understand who it could be, and when I finally realised who it was, I felt my face getting hot.

'Hey? Are you there? Don't you recognize me?' the girl went on in the same playful tone.

'Um… Of course I do…' I stammered noticing the others staring at me in bewilderment.

'What's up?' I heard Liz whisper. 'Who is it?'

'I'm not sure, but I can guess,' Sunny replied, steadily looking at me. 'It seems to me that it's one of our "good friends" calling. Or rather a "girlfriend".'

'Christina?' Tom choked loudly.

Hastily I covered the phone with my hand. 'Please, be quiet!' I pleaded.

'Am I right?' Tom went on, ignoring my whimpered plea. "Is it Christina? What does she want?'

'Fuck off, idiot!' I hissed. 'No, I'm fine,' I said politely into the phone. 'I just… I'll call you back in a minute, okay?'

'What did she want?' Liz gave me a meaningful glance when I hung up.

'I don't know,' I grumbled, standing up and grabbing my sweatshirt. Before they could ask another question I went out of the room and settled down into an armchair in the common room. There was no one except for me there, so I could talk to Christina without listeners. I pulled out the phone and dialed the last number. Christina immediately answered.

'I was starting to think that you wouldn't call,' she said in a capricious voice.

'I promised, remember?' I said.

'Oh, it doesn't mean a lot,' she said playfully. 'You, boys, always promise something, and make us, poor girls, wait and hope.'

'You call yourself a "poor girl"?' I snorted.

'Of course I'm a poor girl,' Christina sighed dramatically. 'Poor, abandoned girl.'

'Abandoned?' I grinned. 'I would never say this. It seems to me that a lot of boys flock around you. I'd say _too_ many boys _too_ _often_ flock around you.'

'Many boys?' Christina repeated. 'Who do you mean?'

'Never mind,' I tried to evade explanations.

'Is someone I'm talking with one of these boys?' Christina obviously wasn't going to let me get away with it so easily.

'How do you think?' I asked.

'What do I think?' Christina re-asked.

'What do you think about what you've asked,' I explained.

'I asked _you_ about it,' Christina said in a more playful tone than before, 'so it's you who should reply, not me.'

All of a sudden I felt cold sweat on my forehead. Suddenly I realised that if Richelle had heard this conversation, she would have never believed that I was speaking with Christina just like a camp-mate. And what's more, I realised with horror that I really liked this conversation, because no matter what Richelle told about Christina, Tom was right, she was a very attractive girl and her attention flattered me.

'So what will you say?' Christina asked again. 'Do you remember about me?'

'I've phoned you,' I said, 'so I suppose it means that I remember.'

'It's getting funny,' Christina gave a melodic snigger. 'What about your Chelley?'

'What about your Victor,' I found myself talking in the same playful voice against my will.

'What about Victor?' Christina giggled.

Maybe they quarreled, I thought. But why then she phoned me, of all people? Or maybe she wants something from me? I should try to find out. 'Victor seems a bit weird lately,' I said out loud. 'So I thought that he might be busy with something.'

'It seems to me that you're interested in Victor more than in me,' Christina pretended to pout. 'Speak to him then.'

'I'm interested in Victor only in an indirect sort of way,' I said, not believing what I was saying.

'What do you mean?' Christina asked in astonishment.

'I mean… my chances…with someone.'

'Chances with someone?' Christina giggled coquettishly. 'With Victor?'

'No,' I replied. 'But if Victor is busy, someone might be free.'

'Oh, is that so?' Christina apparently was pleased. 'I don't know, Nicky. Vic isn't very busy.'

'What if I make him busy?' I insisted.

'Are you sure you want it,' Christina asked.

'It depends on how much _you_ want it,' I said. Oh my god! What am I saying! I thought in horror, but I already couldn't stop myself.

'I'll think,' Christina replied coquettishly. 'Anyway, today I'm free and lonely. And you can save me from loneliness.

'Sure. But not over the phone. Let's meet somewhere in private,' I suggested, horrified with myself. 'I could save you from loneliness, say, in the little park behind the football field.'

'Okay,' Christina sang. 'I'll be there in ten minutes.'

I hung up and rubbed my forehead with my hand. Why the hell did I do this? I thought, shaking my head. If Richelle learns about it, she'll… Oh god!

I buried my face in my hands, thinking if I should call Christina back and say that I wouldn't come. But then another thought crossed my mind. Christina fell under my charm too quickly. What if she wanted me to make a date with her because she and Wilson had a plan?

I glanced at my watch, went out of the common room and walked towards the football field. Christina turned up there a few minutes later. She was wearing full make-up. The short dark-green skirt and camouflage cardigan perfectly suited her figure.

'Hi,' she smiled sweetly and sat down on a bench close to me. I felt scent of her pleasant, sweet flower perfume. Richelle likes the same perfume, a thought flashed in my mind. I felt my face getting hot. I was glad that it was getting dark and Christina couldn't see my blushing face. I felt awful. I felt as if I was cheating on Richelle.

I shook my head. I'm not cheating on Richelle, I said to myself. I just want to find out what they planned so that we will be able to prevent another trick.

I turned the conversation to Victor, trying to draw some information from Christina, but failed. Chris either turned everything into a joke or started to flirt.

Or maybe I'm wrong and she just likes me, I thought, desperately trying to understand. Maybe there's no catch at all, maybe she just wanted to meet me face to face. I shook my head, not knowing what to think.

All the same, I said to myself, I should be careful. Christina is sly. Maybe she wants to confuse me by her sweet words and in the end to learn something.

So when Christina "accidently" turned the conversation to the beauty contest, I tensed. She seems to want something from me, after all, I went on thinking. Suddenly she put her hand on my arm.

'Do you agree?' she asked.

'Ah? What? I… I don't know,' her question took me by surprise.

'What do you mean you don't know?' she raised her eyebrows. 'All girls who are taking part in the contest have peculiar number, according to which they will go on stage.'

'So?' I looked at her.

'So tell me Richelle's and Sunny's numbers,' she replied, innocently looking at me. 'Don't worry. I just want to know when I will have to perform, before or after them.'

By this time I had been completely convinced that Christina had been sent to me by Victor. Apparently he was going to play another practical joke on our girls.

No way am I going to tell you about Sunny and Richelle, I thought. 'I don't remember,' I said out loud. 'Honestly. And anyway, I think it's not important. You have much chance to win.'

Christina tried to giggle, but I could see she was disappointed.

'No, seriously,' I put in quickly. 'I really think that you'll win.'

Christina just snorted in reply.

Yeah, I thought. It was naive of the management of the camp to think that we would distract on the contest and stop fighting. Quite the opposite. Because of this contest, this war could escalate tremendously, and no one could say how it would end.

I don't know why, but while saying goodnight, I told Christina that I would give her a ring the next day. She didn't mind. The more, she seemed to be pleased when I said this.

'You can try,' she cooed playfully. 'Maybe the poor girl will be lonely again. By the way,' she added. 'Will you walk me to my building? But if you're afraid, just tell me. I'll understand.'

To tell the truth I didn't quite understand what in her opinion I might be afraid of. Richelle or Victor? But whoever it was I had no choice but to walk with her to the girls' building.

There Chris kissed me slightly on the cheek, and coquettishly smiling, she disappeared behind the door of the building. As I walked towards the next building I thought over and over again about this evening. I was trying to convince myself that she came to me because Victor'd asked her to find out some information, and that I just took rules of the game. At least I wanted to think like that, not letting other thoughts come into my mind.


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 1****2****. "And now my heart is full of snow…"**

At very last the big day had come. After breakfast Richelle said that she and Sunny had to go to prepare for the contest. Sunny heavily sighed and rolled her eyes.

'Why the hell did I get involved into it?' she murmured, letting Richelle haul her away.

Unlike Richelle she took this beauty contest with her usual calm. Though, maybe it was just a mask. Sunny is always calm, she never shows her real state. I've known her for years and still can't say for sure if she's nervous or not.

At two o'clock all campers gradually started to gather near the canteen, on the second floor of which was a big recital hall with stage. Tom, Elmo and I had changed into our normal clothes, and having met Liz near the girls' sleeping building, we all headed for the canteen.

Kids there wandered around, gaping at the stage and the counselors, who were running around, setting equipment and making the last preparations for the contest. We walked up the stairs to the second floor. In the end of the corridor near the window I noticed Richelle. She was still in jeans and T-shirt, but when we came closer I saw that her makeup and hair had been already done.

Richelle is a beautiful girl. Really beautiful. But with right makeup, she becomes incredibly beautiful, just like a doll. I felt a strong desire to kiss her, but she shook my hands off.

'Not now,' she said, pushing me away. 'Listen,' she turned to the others, 'could you leave me alone? Nick, you stay,' she added, pulling at my sleeve.

'What for?' Tom grinned with a stupid smile.

'Richelle,' Liz said anxiously. 'Just don't worry…'

'I'm fine,' Richelle snapped. 'I just want to be alone with Nick for a while, that's all. So get out, please.'

'There's no need to be snappy then,' Elmo muttered. 'And Liz's right, you know. Don't worry. Even if you don't win the contest it means nothing. It's not the winning but the taking part that counts.'

'Listen, Elmo,' Richelle hissed. 'If you don't disappear at the count of three, _you'll_ be very sorry!'

'We're leaving,' Tom sniggered. 'But…'

'One…' Richelle growled.

'Richelle! We're leaving, calm down!' Liz said hastily.

'Two…' Richelle hissed.

Tom, Liz and Elmo backed down the corridor towards the staircase. As soon as they disappeared out of sight, Richelle squeezed my hand tightly and put her head on my shoulder. I put my hands on her waist and pulled her towards me. 'Everything will be okay,' I whispered in her ear, 'you'll win. You're the most beautiful girl here.'

Richelle took a deep breath and looked straight into my eyes. 'Am I?' she asked, probably hinting at Christina.

'Yeah, you are,' I nodded and ventured to kiss her. This time she didn't mind. Even more, she clasped her arms round my neck, passionately answering my kiss.

'Easy, easy,' came Tom's mocking voice from behind. I turned round to see his smiling face. Liz, Elmo and Sunny were standing behind him, grinning.

'Richelle!? Aren't you afraid to spoil your makeup or hair?' Tom opened his eyes wide, pretending to be scared.

'Drop dead,' Richelle snapped.

Tom, still sniggering, abruptly turned round and bumped into Elmo.

'Hey, watch where you're going,' Elmo howled.

'Go away, you all,' Richelle shouted. 'You've spoilt my emotional state!'

'Oh, so you were improving your emotional state? That's what you two were doing?' Tom went on jeering. 'You use interesting methods to relax, you know, Richelle. But don't pay attention to us. Go on. I'd like to see how you…'

Richelle dashed towards him, but I seized her hand.

'Leave forces for the contest,' I said.

These words affected Richelle. Having given lanky Tom a resounding slap on the head, she turned to the window, leant against the window sill and closed her eyes.

Kids, meanwhile, started to gather in the corridor near the recital hall. Victor and Christina, surrounded by their mates, haughtily sauntered past us. Christina looked at me sideways and gave me a faint smile. I glanced at Richelle, but fortunately she was still standing with her eyes closed and didn't noticed anything. Sunny watched this hated couple till they vanished in the crowd and then touched Richelle's arm.

'Richelle, it's time to go,' she commanded.

Richelle nodded and kissing me, went to the dressing rooms. Tom pulled Sunny towards him and kissed her. 'Good luck,' he whispered in her ear. I noticed Liz look away. To tell the truth I really couldn't understand how such two good friends as Sunny and Liz could quarrel because of such a guy as Tom.

Sunny shyly pulled Tom away, looking sideways at Liz, and ran after Richelle towards the dressing rooms.

I glanced at my watch. The contest was starting in twenty minutes. People were arriving and arriving. Little kids crowded around their counselors, teenagers gathered in groups, giggling and excitedly talking. Mr Wang, who as far as I knew was in the jury, squeezed through the thick crowd and into the recital hall.

We also started moving towards the doors of the hall.

'Oh, great,' short Elmo forced his way through the crowd. 'We've come here so early and didn't even think to occupy seats near the stage. How could we be so stupid?'

He was right in it. All seats in first rows were already occupied. We managed to find vacant seats only in the middle of the hall.

'It's awful,' Liz sighed disappointedly. 'We can't support Sunny and Richelle from here. Listen, let's try to find seats somewhere closer to the stage?'

'Oh, sure,' Elmo muttered. 'First of all, don't you see that all seats there are already occupied? See?' he pointed to the front. 'There's barely room to move there, let alone vacant seats. And while we'll be looking for seats there, these ones will be also occupied. And we'll have to cheer for the girls from the back.'

'Besides we can cheer for them from here,' Tom didn't see the problem.

'Oh, okay, fine,' Liz gave in.

At that moment Justin Peeters, the DJ, turned on solemn music. The hubbub in the audience immediately ceased and everybody turned to look at the stage. The curtain began to slowly rise. All people in the hall were staring at the stage, looking forward to seeing the contestants, but there were only Mr Wang and our counselor Michael, who were standing on the stage and smiling at the crowd.

The audience greeted them with disappointed boos. In reply Mr Wang and Michael began solemnly bowing in all directions.

'Hey, are they also taking part in the beauty contest?' someone said gaily and very loudly.

These words were immediately followed by burst of laughter. Trying to smooth the embarrassment, Justin Peeters turned the powerful amplifier on at full blast. Big mistake. Instead of music, we heard ear-piercing roar. Everyone, including Mr Wang and Michael, pressed their hands to their ears.

Luckily Michael quickly orientated himself in such difficult circumstances and came running to the DJ. The roar ceased. Returning to the stage, the counselor for some reason bowed low to us again, and then turning to his boss, clearly, like a soldier, reported: 'Okay, Mr Wang. We can start.'

'Where's the girls?' someone in the audience yelled again.

'Everything in its own time,' Michael instantly took control of the situation. 'First we listen to Mr Wang. Then the girls.'

'What if first girls, then Mr Wang?' the same guy shouted again.

'Knock it off!' Michael barked. 'Mr Wang,' he solemnly turned to the principal, who looked quite scared.

Mr Wang cleared his throat and began to speak.

'So, my dear friends… Let me declare the beauty contest open!'

There was faint applause from the audience.

'Now. Let me tell you the rules of the contest,' the director went on, slightly raising his voice. 'Michael…?'

Taking a step back, Mr Wang handed the microphone over to the counselor. Michael pulled out the folded sheet of paper from his pocket and unfolded it.

'Dear friends,' he said, checking his paper. 'Every contestant has a peculiar number. After the contest you all will get voting bulletins where you'll have to circle the number of the girl, who you think is the best, and then to put the bulletin into the special box. So the participants' fate is in your hands.

Michael fell silent, checked his paper again, and making sure that he hadn't missed anything, he added, 'So I think we can start… Questions?' he barked after a pause.

'No questions,' the crowd replied in chorus.

'Then I declare the beauty contest opened!'

Mr Wang and Michael went off backstage. The solemn music started and twelve contestants walked onto the stage and lined up in a half circle. The audience exploded with applause and cheers. All girls wore equal black swimsuits and light, short skirts of half-transparent silver fabric. But their hair differed a lot – from short boyish haircuts and just loose hair, like Sunny's, till very complex hairdos, like on Richelle's head.

'Why didn't Sunny make something like this?' Elmo asked Tom, jerking his head towards Richelle.

'She looks more pretty with her hair like that,' Tom said proudly as if it was he who told Sunny not to get into hairstyling frills.

The girls, one by one, walked to the front of the stage, and froze in a picturesque pose. Michael and Marina, who were the comperes, stood at the back. Marina announced the name of the girl and her number. After that the girl returned to her place.

'Sunny's turn,' Liz said excitedly. 'Come on, guys, cheer for her!'

She didn't have to say that, though, because Tom suddenly leaped onto his seat and raising his hands above his head, started to applaud, yelling 'Bravo! Bravo! Sunny is the best!'

'What the hell bravo? I hissed, trying hard to pull him off the seat and feeling incredibly embarrassed.

'Fuck off,' he tried to knock me away, continuing yelling.

From the stage Sunny cast furious glances to him. Instead of looking at her, people in the audience were eyeing Tom. Some kids advised Tom to take a place among the girls on the stage.

'Tom, stop disgracing yourself,' Liz and I were pulling Tom at his jeans, but it did no good. As if possessed, he went on applauding and yelling his "Bravo" and "Sunny is the best!" until Sunny returned into her place in the half circle. As soon as she had left the front part of the stage, Tom, as if someone had turned him off, immediately fell silent and sat down on his chair.

'Have you completely lost your brains?' I hissed to him. 'What are you doing, you, idiot?'

'Fuck off, Kontellis,' he snapped.

'Nick, don't start, please,' Liz pleaded. 'It's his private life.'

'What the hell private life if everyone is staring at us,' I hissed, avoiding jeering eyes of other kids.

A new explosion of applause distracted us from the argument. People in the audience welcomed Christina Anderson. Victor Wilson and his mates jumped on their feet, roaring "Christina is the best!" The next moment a big, white banner flew up into the air. It said "Christina is our queen!", written in large red letters.

'The enemies didn't waste time,' I looked at the visual propaganda with envy. 'Why didn't we think of that?'

Christina returned into the half-circle. Then it was Richelle's turn. Once she began moving forward, when the crowd burst into applause. Somebody whistled. Somebody else shouted "Come on, Richelle!" Strangely, but instead of being proud of my girlfriend, I felt a pang of jealousy. I didn't like that all these guys were staring at Richelle in the swimsuit.

Richelle gave the crowd a dazzling smile, and turning round, she glided from the hip back to the half circle.

After Richelle Marina presented other girls to us, but their appearance wasn't accompanied with anything interesting. When all contestants were presented, Marina declared the erudition, knowledge of history and literature competition.

The curtain went down, hiding the girls behind it. Instead of them a tall, stooping guy in glasses clambered onto the stage and came up to the microphone.

'Who is this?' Tom shouted loudly. 'Another contestant?'

Liz clamped her hand over his mouth. Michael furiously glared at him, then took the microphone and announced:

'While the girls are preparing for the erudition competition, Samuel Hart will read us his poem "Pilgrim of my soul". For this composition Samuel was rewarded with prize like the best underage poet of the country. He is pride of this camp!'

'I wonder was he paid for this poem?' I enquired.

'No, he wasn't,' Elmo replied, leaning to me. 'But they will pay for his full course of study at any university in the country he will choose.'

'Elmo, why didn't you write anything like that then?' I asked again. 'You also could have your study at the university paid. How could you lose such an opportunity?'

Elmo shrugged. 'I don't need it,' he muttered.

Samuel Hart, who as far as I knew never let anyone call him just Sam, meanwhile, cleared his throat and raising his head up, solemnly said into the microphone.

'"Pilgrim of my soul". Dedicated to N.N.'

'Who is it?' Tom couldn't restrain himself from another question.

'Hey, Samuel, who is this N.N.?' someone in the audience shouted mockingly.

The pride of the camp didn't answer, waiting for silence with stoical humility. Jokes in the audience didn't seem to touch him at all. Finally when chuckles quieted, Samuel, in a soft, melancholic voice began to read out loud a poem about a man, who was roaming in a desert.

'Do you understand anything?' Tom demanded, turning to us. 'At least anything?'

'Only in a general way,' Elmo grinned.

'Trash,' Tom muttered. 'I wonder how he managed to receive a prize for this shit!'

'Hey, you, moron, if you're so clever, write something before criticizing!' a thin guy, who was sitting behind us and who obviously was Samuel Hart's fan, growled angrily.

'And I cognized my spiritual quest… I killed my passion and cleared my soul, and now my heart is full of snow…' Hart droned.

'He killed his passion,' Tom burst into loud laughter. 'This N.N. just stood him up and that's all!'

People from all sides of the hall started whispering and shushing at us.

'Shut up,' I hissed in Tom's ear. 'Otherwise we'll be thrown out of here.'

'Okay, okay,' Tom grinned gaily.

Though, Tom's comments didn't affect the young poet at all. He seemed to be somewhere in his own world, and his world obviously was very very far from "Mountain Knight".

'When will he finish?' I groaned. 'How long do we have to listen to this rubbish?'

'Oh, come off it,' Elmo suddenly began to defend the young talent. 'His poem is a bit incomprehensible, but still quite fine.'

Finally the pride of the camp had finished to read his gibberish. There was faint applause, then the poet bowed in all directions and went away. After that the curtain rose, showing us the contestants, who were sitting on special benches. There was a round table and three chairs around it in the centre of the stage. Bright, colourful envelopes were lying on the table. Mr Wang and the old librarian walked onto the stage and sat down on the chairs.

'We begin the erudition, knowledge of history and literature competition,' Michael declared.


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13. The contest is continuing**

Michael occupied the third chair. All contestants looked very tense. Judging by their faces you could see that their nerves were strained to the breaking point. Even Sunny, who had repeated over and over again that she didn't care if she would win the contest or not, because she'd agreed to take part in it only under Richelle's pressure, was very pale now.

'So. We're starting,' Michael announced.

The first competition began. One by one girls came up to the table, took the envelope, opened it, read out loud the questions and gave answers. There were three questions in every envelope about literature, history and society.

Marina announced the name and number of the contestant. Michael, Mr Wang and the librarian judged the girls' answers. Checking their notes, they said if the answer was right or wrong. It should be noted, however, that verdict "wrong" was brought in much more often than "right". Most of the participants at best gave answers to two of three questions. Richelle answered only one question. Literature, history and society aren't her strong side. If the questions were about famous people or about fashion, that would be another matter of course.

'Richelle, how could you?' Marina exclaimed disappointedly. 'How could you not answer such easy questions?'

Richelle just shrugged and gave the audience one of her best, dazzling smiles.

I, personally, took it as a great injustice. Most of questions were really stupid. For example what colour was Juliette's hair. Who cares what colour her hair or anything else was!

'Don't worry,' Liz smiled when I said my indignation out loud. 'See, Christina is going. She knows about literature and history even less than Richelle.'

'What if she knows more?' I started to worry. I really didn't want Wilson's girlfriend to gain the upper hand over my Richelle.

Luckily Liz was right. Christina didn't answer any of the three questions. When she confidently said that the novel "_The Canterville Ghost"_ was written by Stephen King, the librarian couldn't help groaning.

'Well, you know, it's even worse than not to know the colour of Juliette's hair!'

Christina, pretending that she didn't care, playfully smiled at the crowd and went back to her place.

Sunny was the last in this competition. When she came up to the table, she looked calm and self-confident as ever. She took the envelope, pulled out a piece of paper from it and unfolded it.

'How old was Hamlet?' she loudly read the first question.

'Oh my god! Sunny failed!' Liz whispered in horror.

But Sunny didn't look worried. After a short pause, she spoke in an even, calm voice.

'Hamlet was about thirty years old. It was quite considerable age at that time.'

The librarian jumped from his chair and shook Sunny's hand.

'Awesome! Great! I haven't already expected that someone would give a right answer in literature!'

'Guys,' Tom turned to us, his eyes wide as saucers, 'it's the right answer. But how could she know?'

'I want to ask you one more question,' the librarian went on, 'don't worry, if you don't answer, it won't affect your scores for this competition. So, Miss Chan, can you explain how did you come to such a bold conclusion? Shakespeare doesn't give straight mentions about Hamlet's age.'

'It's easy,' Sunny smiled. 'Yeah, there was no mention about Hamlet's age, but the gravedigger told that he had begun to work there when Hamlet was born and that he had been working there for thirty years. So I suppose that Hamlet was about thirty.'

On hearing this, the librarian beamed. 'Absolutely right! Absolutely right! Awesome!' he muttered under his breath.

'That's…unbelievable!' I whispered in admiration.

'Sunny!' Tom broke out into applause. 'Sunny! You're the best! Keep this up!'

Michael held up his hand, ordering Tom to shut up. Tom fell silent and dropped on his seat. Sunny read the second question.

'When was the Eiffel Tower built?'

'She must know it,' Liz breathed out with relief.

Sunny immediately satisfied her expectations. 'It was built for the World's fair held in Paris in 1889.'

'It's the right answer,' Michael announced.

Tom howled in raptures. People in the audience broke out into applause.

'Question number three,' Sunny said when applause faded. 'One day Edgar Poe wrote a letter to Alan Alexander Milne. What did he write in this letter?'

'She won't answer it,' Elmo whispered, shaking his head disappointedly. 'I don't think she knows it. Even I don't know what he wrote there.'

Sunny seemed to be thinking. Then she looked around at the people in the audience, who were staring at her expectantly, and taking a deep breath, spoke.

'He wrote nothing. Because Edgar Poe died in 1849. Alan Alexander Milne wasn't even born yet, so Edgar Poe couldn't know about Milne's existence, and of course, he couldn't write any letters to him.'

'Awesome! Awesome!' the old librarian clutched at his heart and fell on his chair.

'Do you feel bad?' Marina anxiously came running up to him.

'Right the opposite! I feel very well!' the old librarian answered in a weak voice.

'The answer is right,' Michael announced.

Liz, Elmo and I stood up, cheering and clapping. As for Tom, he jumped high and applauded, yelling "Sunny is the best!" and "Sunny for Queen!".

Sunny returned to her bench, looking confident and happy.

'I didn't expect this from her,' I said, astonished by Sunny's knowledge.

'When did she manage to prepare so well?' Elmo agreed.

'Sunny's very smart,' Liz smiled proudly. 'I always knew that.'

Finally the first competition was finished. Two guys rolled a piano to the front of the stage. The curtain went down. Two guys slipped behind the curtain, leaving the piano on the stage.

'Hey, are they going to compete on this piano?' Tom groaned. His relationship with classical music was quite strained.

'No,' Liz grinned. 'The girls went to prepare for the floral design competition.

Tangling in the long curtain, Michael clambered on the stage.

'Musical entr'acte!' he announced in his commanding voice. 'George Gershwin. The Second Rhapsody. Performed by Megan Arutunley.'

'Oh, great,' Tom's face fell in disappointment.

A short, thin girl came onto the stage, awkwardly bowed to the audience and sat down to the piano. At the first cords of her music all of us, even those who weren't sophisticated in classical music, understood that her playing was far from perfect. Very far. Most of people in the audience plainly were glad that the second rhapsody wasn't long.

The girl finished playing, and bowing again, went off the stage. The curtain started slowly to rise. Behind it there were a row of little tables with flowers, grass, colourful papers and other components for future floral compositions. One by one the participants came onto the stage, each of them carried a small folded table. They unfolded their tables and froze in nervous expectation.

Marina took the microphone and announced that the floral design competition had begun.

The place became buzzing. The girls dashed from their tables to tables with the components for floral compositions. They had only ten minutes to create something beautiful and unusual.

Their running and flicking on the stage made me dizzy. The next moment I was nearly deafened, because all of a sudden Tom jumped to his feet, yelling encouraging words to Sunny. Liz immediately joined him. Inspired by them, support teams of other girls also jumped off their seats and cheered for their favourites. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the flattering banner over the crowd, flashing "Christina is our queen!" Noise in the audience was unbelievable.

Luckily Michael came running up to the microphone and roared.

'Stop that! Shame on you! Don't you understand that you distract the girls by your yells?'

'That's right,' I approved his words.

'That's boring,' Tom objected.

'Girls,' Michael announced, staring at his watch, 'the last minute is going. 30 seconds left… Ten seconds … Halt!' he barked.

The contestants made the finishing strokes, grabbed their compositions, went off the stage and walked between seats, showing us their works.

There was a great uproar, shouting and whistling in the hall. Supporting teams yelled names of their favorites and whistled. Boys and girls around me squealed and screamed. Tom climbed up on his seat, yelling "Sunny!" at the top of his lungs.

'What are _we_ waiting for?' Liz turned to me. 'Hey, Nick, wake up!' she nudged me. 'Stand up and cheer for Richelle.'

Right at that moment Richelle was going past us with a very nice flower composition. Forcing myself to forget about being cool, I also jumped on my seat. So did Liz.

'Richelle for the queen!' we shouted in chorus.

Next to us Tom, and even always shy Elmo, cheered for Sunny.

Having shown the flower compositions, the girls put their works on the tables, which would later be brought to the hall behind the stage and where we all would be able to see them closer after the contest. After that the girls went off behind the scenes to change for the next competition.

A slicked guy in a tux and a girl in a long dark-red dress went on the stage and danced tango or something like that. When they finished, Michael and Marina appeared on the stage again.

'Evening gown competition!' Michael announced.

'I wonder where they took evening gowns,' Elmo enquired.

'The camp rented them for the girls in a boutique,' Liz explained. 'All dresses are only from famous designers.'

There was solemn music and the girl number one came onto the stage. She was wearing a long black-and-gold dress. She walked around the stage to tumultuous applause, then came to the front and made a deep curtsey. After that she slipped off behind the scenes. People in the audience yelled and whistled admiringly after her.

'Nothing interesting,' I grumbled. I was annoyed. Before this contest I couldn't even imagine that there were so many beautiful girls in the camp. I thought Richelle was the most beautiful, but now I had to admit that I was wrong. In luxurious evening gowns, with make-up some girls looked at least not worse than Richelle. 'And dress is stupid,' I went on grumbling. 'It's too long. She can't even walk in it.'

'Rubbish,' Tom objected. 'Cool dress. And the girl is cool.'

The music changed. The next girl went on the stage. She was wearing a black tuxedo and black straight trousers. A black hat on her head and little walking stick in her hands finished the picture.

'Is it an evening gown?' I went on grumbling, sounding like an old man, I suppose, refusing to admit that this girl also looked amazing and, what's more important, unusual.

The girl in tuxedo stopped in the centre of the stage and started to tap dance.

'Cool tap,' Tom approved again.

'Yeah,' Liz drawled. 'At least she's not like everyone else.'

'I don't understand, for whom are you two going to vote?' I muttered.

'Of course for Sunny and Richelle,' Liz said. 'But we can praise other girls, can't we?'

'Especially if we know now that Richelle's unlikely to win,' Tom put in.

'Why is she unlikely to win?' I exclaimed, jumping up in a fury.

'Because she received very little points for the first competition. She didn't answer properly any of the three questions. I reckon Sunny has much more chances to win.'

'Questions aren't really important,' I defended Richelle as best as I could. 'Richelle's beautiful. It's the beauty contest, not intellectual one. Richelle'll defeat them all by her appearance.'

'Sunny also is beautiful,' Tom retorted. 'And all girls who take part in the contest are worthy to be the beauty queen. Unbeautiful girls don't go on the stage, they are in the audience.'

'Oh, is that so?' Liz pressed her lips together in an aggrieved sort of way and turned her back on him.

'Liz, I didn't mean that,' he realized what he'd said. 'It was just a joke.'

'Sure,' Liz shrugged. 'I understand. I'm just looking at Richelle.'

Richelle in a very short, strapless silver dress with long black train glided, dancing around the stage. The dress and hair-do emphasized her perfection, proving that I wasn't mistaken about her appearance after all.

Richelle gracefully glided the width of the stage and stood poised for a while, smiling at the admiringly shouting crowd. There was a tumultuous roar of approving from the crowd. Richelle turned back and walked off backstage, swaying her hips. This competition she had successfully won.

'Look, your other friend's coming to seduce us,' after a while Liz nudged me meaningfully.

I felt myself going red in the face. Christina was on the stage, and no matter how much I hated to admit it, she also looked really great. Emerald green, off-the shoulder dress matched her copper red hair. Her dress was fitted all the way down to her knees and then flared out at the bottom. In this dress, decorated with pleated flowers, with her hair loose, she looked like a mermaid. She waved her arm and glided around the stage, dancing. I did my best to refuse the admiration, I felt at the moment.

Though her performance didn't last long. All of a sudden there was a terrible crashing noise. Music stopped. Something cracked somewhere on the ceiling and confetti rained straight onto Christina's head. She squealed. The colourful rain soon stopped, but Chris went on hysterically screaming and waving her arms.

'What was that?' Liz whispered in horror.

'The confetti was prepared for the party,' Elmo said. 'But I suppose for some reason it cracked too early.'

Michael, Marina and Mr Wang had come running to Christina. Marina led her away. Michael and Mr Wang bent over the pile of confetti, poking in it. The reason of Christina's hysterics was immediately found out. To our great astonishment, Michael picked up a huge dead mouse, holding it by its tail, with expression of great disgust on his face.

This time all girls in the first rows screamed.

'Oh my god! It's gross!' Liz covered her mouth with her hand in disgust. 'Did this thing fall on Christina's head?'

'Wow! A cool mouse!' Tom apparently didn't share her abomination. 'I didn't know that such big mice live here!'

'I didn't know that even _little_ _mice_ live here, let alone such big ones!' I shuddered.

'Oh, there are lots of little mice,' Tom assured me in a cheerful voice. 'Especially in the bushes behind the canteen.'

Michael and Mr Wang went on attentively examining the mouse as if it was an odd animal. Then Mr Wang took the microphone.

'Attention, please!' he said. 'The contest will be continued in a few minutes. It was a technical mistake. I think this mouse switched on the mechanism, which was supposed to get the confetti out at the costume party. I'm very sorry for this accident. Peeters! Turn on something cheerful.'

Powerful music speakers let out a sharp squeak, which changed with hard rock song. People in the audience had to put their hands over their ears so as not to become deaf.

'Stop that, Peeters,' Mr Wang tried to shout over the wild sounds. 'I asked you to turn on normal music!'

But Justin didn't agree with the director, or maybe he was too impressed of what had happened to Chris. Anyway, instead of changing the song, he turned the powerful amplifier on at full blast. Mr Wang, as well as most of kids in the hall, pressed his hands to his ears and shouted something into the microphone again. But none of us could hear his words in this deafening noise. Michael was the first to recover. He dashed aside and wild sounds soon were cut short.

'Phew!' Liz breathed out, relieved.

'Why?! Cool music!' Tom objected gaily. Music from the hell obviously didn't discourage him.

'I'm just glad that we didn't go deaf,' Elmo muttered.

I didn't share their argument. I was thinking about something else. As soon as Mr Wang said that the mouse accidently turned on the confetti mechanism, the last meeting with Christina, where she had enquired me when Sunny and Richelle would go on stage, floated into my mind.

No, I tried to convince myself that I was wrong. They couldn't do that. It's too abominably. Or could they? Such mean tricks are Wilson's favourite business. After all if it hadn't been for additional question about Hamlet's age, Sunny probably would have been on the stage now, and this mouse would have fallen onto her.

I felt sort of satisfaction when I thought about it. If I was right, and it was one of Wilson's dirty tricks, they let down themselves.

A cleaning lady clambered on the stage and muttering to herself, started to sweep the confetti. When she finished and clambered away, Michael and Marina turned up on the stage. The contest continued. The participants one by one went on the stage showing evening gowns of all kinds and colours. Finally it was Sunny's turn. She went on the stage in a short silver dress. The dress looked quite plain, but at the same time it was well-cut and perfectly suited Sunny. Her straight black hair was floating around her shoulders. Light make-up in silver tones emphasized plainness and elegance of the dress. She looked so… naturally beautiful. Against my will I admitted that Sunny looked amazing. I'd never seen Sunny in a dress or with make-up before. Now it was as if I saw her in a new light. She turned out more beautiful than I thought.

I glanced sideways at Tom. He was staring at Sunny in admiration, his mouth open. Well, I could understand him.

Quite gracefully Sunny covered her face with a black silk hand fan and made a deep curtsey. There was explosion of cheering. The crowd roared in admiration. Tom woke up and began yelling encouraging words for her. Liz and Elmo joined him.

After Sunny's performance the third competition was over. All girls went away, the curtain went down.

###

The next and final competition was talent competition. Girls did everything you could think of – they sang, danced, played a scene from a dramatic play or comedy.

Richelle danced. She danced very very well, her movements were graceful and smooth, she made all people in the hall keep their eyes on her.

Sunny showed a gymnastic performance. She came on the stage in a tight-fitting sparkling costume and performed her flexibility and gracefulness in all its magnificence.

Christina Anderson came on the stage in an east costume and danced a hot belly dance. Before that I couldn't even imagine how many hot things a girl can do with her hips. To watch it on TV is one thing, but to see it in reality is absolutely another matter. So Christina also had done well.

Richelle's dance was really beautiful and graceful, but it had been a bit forgotten by the end of the competition. She was one of many girls who danced, while Sunny was the only one who showed gymnastic performance. And no one except Christina danced belly-dance.

When all girls showed us their talents, they formed a half-circle on the stage again. The supporting teams immediately began whistling and shouting.

'Silence!' Michael barked. 'So, dear guests. The beauty contest is over. All girls deserve to be the beauty queen, but only one will win this title. Everything is in your hands now.'

The girls bowed to us and went off backstage. A few little girls of about ten years old, in lovely dresses, gave voting bulletins out to us.

Marina announced the beginning of the voting. We had to make choice within twenty minutes. During this time all who wish to, as Michael said "get acquainted with the quality of the floral compositions", could go to the hall, where the girls had exhibited their works. After that we had an hour to go to our rooms to change into our costumes for the party, which would start at 8 o'clock. Before the party Michael and Marina would tell the results of the contest.

'Any questions?' Michael asked the audience.

There were no questions. The voting started. Liz found herself in a difficult situation. We could vote for only one candidate, and Liz couldn't decide for whom she wanted to vote – for Sunny or for Richelle.

'I suggest that we all vote for Sunny,' Tom said. 'Richelle wasn't too impressive, so I don't think she'll win. But Sunny still has a chance. We should support her.'

'Richelle impressed everyone, if you didn't notice,' I grabbed his T-shirt. 'She's worthy to be the queen more than Sunny.'

Tom shook off my hands. 'Richelle failed the erudition competition,' he snapped. 'And Sunny was much better in the talent competition. Come on, Kontellis, admit it. Sunny has much more chances to win.'

'Richelle charmed the audience by her looks,' I muttered.

'Sunny also looked amazingly beautiful and charmed everyone by her looks,' Tom snapped.

'Guys, don't fight, please,' Liz pleaded.

'There's only one way out – to toss a coin,' Elmo pulled out a coin from his pocket. 'If it's "heads", we're voting for Sunny and if it's "tails" - for Richelle.'

'I don't give a damn about the coin,' I didn't agree. 'I'm going to vote for Richelle. Invariably.'

'And I'm for Sunny,' Tom said firmly.

'Okay, Liz, that left only you and me. What do you choose, "heads" or "tails"?' Elmo turned to Liz.

'No, Elmo, I think I should vote for Richelle too,' Liz said quickly. 'She's my friend since the preschool. And Sunny…Well I'm voting for Richelle.'

'Okay, I'll vote for Sunny then,' Elmo decided. 'It'll be fair for both of them.'

We quickly circled the names and dropped voting bulletins into the special boxes, then we gaped at the flower compositions for a while and finally went to our rooms to change into costumes.

While going past the girls' sleeping building, Tom attempted to peer into one of the open windows, but girls with squeals and screams "Get out of here, idiot!" pushed him out. The window immediately slammed shut.

'As ever,' Tom muttered, rubbing his shoulder.

'What did you expect?' Elmo grinned. 'That they would invite you to come in?'

'No,' Tom sniggered and added importantly, 'Stop wasting time. Otherwise they will declare the queen without us.'


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14. Dracula, gnomes, trolls and the Beauty Queen**

Our costumes for the party had been prepared and neatly hung on the chairs in our rooms. That is my and Elmo's costumes were ready. As for Tom, he repeated all the time that he would wear his own costume, but I hadn't seen it done yet. We started to change into our costumes, when someone knocked on the door.

'Come in,' Elmo shouted.

The door opened and Gregory came into the room. He was in a bee costume, which seemed to be a little bit small for stocky Greg.

'I think you chose the wrong size,' I grinned.

'Yeah, it's a bit narrow for me,' Greg agreed, horns on his head waving in all directions. 'I can't zip this thing up at the back. Can you help me?'

'Let me,' Tom rushed to help Greg and pulled the zip fastener up with all his might. The fabric threateningly cracked.

'Hey, you'll tear it,' I grabbed Tom's hand.

'Be careful, please,' Gregory panted. 'I don't have another costume. And they won't allow me to go to the party without a costume, won't they?'

'Of course,' Elmo said seriously. 'You should have chosen a bigger size.'

'We chose the costumes more than a week ago,' Greg objected, hauling his stomach in as deep as he could. 'It hardly fitted me even at that time. But then I intensely worked out at the gym and probably grew more muscles. So now it's became a little bit small for me.'

'If you grew more muscles, go to the party only in pants as a bodybuilder,' Tom chuckled. 'Stand like this,' he struck a characteristic pose of a bodybuilder, 'and all girls will be yours.'

'Very funny,' Gregory pouted.

Elmo, meanwhile, was calmly tying to find a reasonable solution of the problem, examining Gregory from all sides.

'Okay,' he finally said. 'Greg, pull off your singlet. It's too thick.'

Gregory obediently pulled off his singlet and only then, with great difficulty, we managed to zip up his costume.

'Let me give you a piece of advice,' Tom couldn't stop himself from laughing when we finished. 'Try to stand still. Otherwise your costume will tear.'

Gregory said that he would try and toddled out of the room.

Five minutes later we all were dressed up. As I'd already said, I looked very impressive in this pirate costume. I really was pleased with myself.

Elmo put on his costume of a dwarf, which perfectly matched his height. And he received what he wanted. You would never recognize him under these bushy eyebrows and thick grey beard. He wore wide brown trousers, dark-white shirt and padded waistcoat. On his head was a red cap with white pompon.

Tom made a really original costume, I have to admit. He managed to find loads of bandages and white pieces of fabrics, and wrapped them around his legs, arms, body and head until he turned into a mummy. A few torn pieces of bandages he left hanging loosely, what made his costume look more realistic. But he didn't stop at it and fitted a fake eye with huge yellow pupil on his own eye. I don't know where he had gotten this fake eye, but with this thing he looked like an one-eyed mummy or zombie, which had been sleeping for hundreds years and had just left his tomb in order to find some fresh flesh.

Liz was waiting for us near the girls' sleeping building. She also made her own costume – she sewed a short, bright pink-and-white dress, with bouffant short skirt and puffed sleeves. That sort of dresses which little girls wear on pictures in fairy tales books. Her hair had been done in two ponytails and she held a big lollypop in her hand.

'Tom!' Liz pleaded when she saw Tom's fake eye. 'I beg you, take this disgusting thing away from your eye. I can't look at you without shuddering.'

'But that's exactly what I wanted!' Tom laughed in a sinister voice.

We came up to the canteen when something white-faced, in a black robe flew out with blood-curdling laughter, nearly knocking us off our feet. Liz squealed.

'Cool, hah?' the boy smiled, baring vampire fangs.

'Wow! Awesome!' Tom sincerely admired. I rolled my eyes. Sometimes Tom is so childish.

'Your costume is also pretty,' the boy grinned to Tom and ran away to frighten girls.

A lot of different creatures were walking around near the canteen, waiting for results of the contest. There were musketeers, cats, hares, Cinderellas, pirates and Indians of all kinds and ages. One angel. Two deaths with cardboard scythes. Four demons with horns and long tails. One cow, which obviously consisted of two persons, who couldn't synchronize their movements, and as a result, the poor "cloven-hoofed animal" helplessly swung around on the spot.

Fauna also was represented by several rabbits; a crocodile with a very long tail; a mouse, which was much bigger than the crocodile; and by a two-legged creature of indefinite kind and genus, with big round ears and huge belly. As Tom said, it was something between a mouse and hippopotamus. Although one of the demons later explained to us that it was an elephant, but all the same, Tom stuck to his opinion.

There were also a couple of flowers and several princesses.

Soon Gregory-bee came up to us and stared at Liz in admiration. 'Cool costume, Liz,' he said.

'Oh, thank you,' Liz beamed at him.

###

'Okay, let's go in,' Elmo said, nervously pulling at his beard.

We pushed our way through the crowd and came into the hall, where most of campers were already assembled. Right on time, because at that moment Michael marched onto the stage. The crowd burst into applause.

'Silence, please,' he barked into the microphone.

The hubbub in the audience faded. All eyes were expectantly fixed on the stage. Marina and Mr Wang came up to Michael from the backstage.

'Let's greet the contestants,' Michael went on.

There was an explosion of cheering. Someone blew into trumpets, someone else whistled and shouted. The banner with "Christina is our queen" flew up into the air.

Justin turned on solemn music and the girls walked onto the stage. They were wearing evening gowns again. Trolls, Cinderellas, and other representatives of flora and fauna clapped, cheered, whistled and shouted. The contestants lined up on the stage. Judging by their faint smiles and pale faces you could say that their nerves were stretched to the breaking point.

'I'd like to give the floor to Mr Wang,' Michael announced.

The director took the microphone, and clearing his throat, spoke.

'Fastidious and unprejudiced vote count yields the following results,' he fell silent and cleared his throat again. The girls' faces were almost white with nervousness.

'So. The third place,' Mr Wang said, 'and the title of the second princess is awarded to… Helen Murray.

Helen, a short-haired girl in tuxedo walked on the centre of the stage and bowed to us. Michael gave her a huge bunch of flowers and a small box, apparently with a mobile phone. A few girls hugged Helen and congratulated her. Sunny patted her on the shoulder. Neither Christina nor Richelle moved.

'The second place and the title of the first princess is awarded to…' Mr Wang made a pause, which was too long in my opinion.

Richelle? A thought was pulsing in my head; I felt a sudden dryness in my throat. Can it be Richelle?

'Jennifer Lima,' the director announced.

Jennifer's support team went into raptures. Her boyfriend climbed on the shoulders of one of his friends and vigorously waved a flag, on which was written in large blue letters "Jennifer is the best".

'Oh no,' Liz clapped her hand to her mouth. 'If Christina wins, Richelle'll go mad. I'm afraid even to think of it.'

Jennifer, beaming, took a huge bunch of roses from Mr Wang. Two counselors carried a big box with stereo system on the stage, and put it next to the first princess. Her friends bellowed in admiration. A few girls, except for Richelle and Chris, dashed to hug and congratulate Jennifer. The audience cheered and clapped.

'The title of the beauty queen,' Mr Wang began when the applause went down, 'and the first prize – laptop, is awarded to…' Mr Wang fell silent, checking the piece of paper in his hands.

My heart froze. It must be Richelle. It just must be Richelle, because in my opinion all girls who deserved to win had already won. There were only two girls on the stage and in the whole camp, who were worthy to become the beauty queen. Richelle and Christina.

Everyone in the audience fell silent. All eyes were fixed on the stage. Liz and Elmo were staring at the stage, Liz with her hand pressed to her mouth, and Elmo tugging out his beard.

Not Christina! Not Christina! I repeated to myself. It must be Richelle. Oh, god, let it be Richelle!

'Is awarded to…' Mr Wang went on stretching the pause. 'Alice Chan!'

My heart fell down into my shoes, my jaw dropped. Tom yelled deafeningly. Liz and Elmo took up his yells.

Sunny walked on the centre of the stage. To tumultuous applause she was handed a bunch of roses and a box with laptop. Mr Wang, Marina and Michael shook her hand, and then Mr Wang solemnly put the silver tiara on her head. Sunny was beaming. Despite all her assurances that she didn't care if she would win or not, it was obvious that she was happy. Tom was dancing up and down on his seat, shouting Sunny's name.

All of a sudden a sharp, clear exclamation came from the audience.

'It's a setup. Who would vote for this midget?!'

Everyone turned to this familiar voice, which without doubt belonged to Victor Wilson. But it was just impossible to understand where Victor was in this dressed-up crowd.

'Where's this bastard?' Tom turned in all directions.

'Over there, I think,' Liz pointed at a gang of trolls.

Right at that moment one of the trolls yelled in a voice of Victor's best mate, 'the queen is phony!'

'So they are trolls now,' Tom growled. 'Okay, let it be this way,' he went on threateningly, 'I'm going to make them trolls' faces. I promise, they won't even need to wear masks!'

'Tom, no! Not now!' Liz clutched at his hand. 'Please, you'll spoil the party!'

'Who cares,' Tom shook off her hands. 'Why these stinky trolls are allowed to spoil the party and I am not?'

'Because they are stinky trolls,' Elmo said reasonably. 'It's their nature. Don't be like them.'

'Okay, we won't be like them,' Tom agreed. 'But all the same, I'll punch this bastard Wilson later.'

'You'll punch him,' Gregory-bee slapped the mummy on the shoulder. 'But after the party.'

'Okay, fine,' Tom agreed reluctantly.

I didn't take part in this argument. I guess I was too thunderstruck. I couldn't believe it. Okay, I thought that Sunny could become one of the princesses. But to become the beauty queen…

Mr Wang and Michael, meanwhile, began to hand out consolation prizes, which were consisted of cosmetics and perfume. Then Mr Wang asked for the floor to say a few concluding words.

'The best girls won,' he said. 'But I'd like to point out that all girls here are beautiful and smart,' he waved his hand to the half-circle of participants. 'So I want to congratulate you all on the end of your holidays here and I do hope that you'll visit our camp again. Now. As you know we promised to give a prize for the best and ingenious costume. Our dear queen and two princesses will discuss it and choose the winner. Now, let's start the party!'

The girls waved to the audience and went off backstage.

'Come on,' Liz said. 'We should congratulate Sunny and console Richelle.'

'There she is,' Tom shouted, pointing to the left. 'Hello, dear queen!' he yelled, running up to Sunny and hugging her.

'Congratulations, Sunny,' Liz said, quite heartily, also hugging Sunny on the other side.

I politely smiled at her and muttered congratulations. Now another question was bothering me. Where's Richelle? She wasn't anywhere in sight. Knowing how much Richelle wanted to win this contest, I could imagine how she must have been disappointed and upset.

'Sunny, do you know where Richelle is,' I asked, tearing Sunny from Tom, who couldn't stop admiring her.

'She didn't say anything to me, just quietly went out,' Sunny replied. 'I don't know where she was heading for.'

'I'll go to look for her,' I sighed.

'I'm with you,' Liz suggested.

'No, I'd better go alone,' I objected. 'Liz, she didn't become even a beauty princess! Can you imagine how she feels now?'

'I know,' Liz nodded. 'But all the same I can't let you go on your own. She's my friend after all.'

'Er…Liz, you promised to dance with me,' Gregory made a faint effort to stop her.

'Greg, I'll dance with you when I find Richelle, okay?' Liz smiled at him.

###

Liz and I searched the whole building, but didn't find Richelle. Then we went outside and went to look for her in the camp. The night was quite cold, but it didn't stop the campers from walking here and there. We walked on and on around the camp, but Richelle wasn't anywhere.

I was really starting to worry. So was Liz. All people were in costumes, who knows which of them were Wilson's guys. That is we knew that they were trolls, but there were a lot of trolls of all kinds, and besides, Wilson and his friends could have more than one costume.

There's no need for Wilson to do something to Richelle, I tried to calm myself down. She, as well as Christina didn't become even a beauty princess. If there's someone Wilson wants to have revenge upon, it's Sunny. Though at the same time I realized that it was silly. Even Wilson and his stupid friends could understand that Sunny's a hard nut for them to crack. Even in the beauty queen dress she could defend herself. But Richelle was another matter.

So when we finally found Richelle behind the football field I felt a great relief. She was sitting on a bench, clasping her hands around her knees. Her shoes were on the ground nearby, the long train of her dress hung down from the bench. Liz and I glanced at one another. We knew that Richelle were crying. We knew how much she wanted to win this contest. Liz sat down on the bench and put a comforting arm around Richelle.

'Richelle, the contest isn't really important,' she mumbled.

I rolled my eyes. Do you understand what you're saying, Liz, I thought. Maybe the contest isn't important for you, but for Richelle it's a matter of life and death.

I was right. Liz's words didn't soothe Richelle at all. Quite the opposite, she burst into tears again. I sat down on the bench on the other side of Richelle.

'Liz, leave us alone, please,' I whispered in Liz's ear.

Liz glanced doubtfully at me. I nodded.

'I'll…er… I'll go to look for the others', she stood up, and giving me the last glance, she walked away. I put my arms around Richelle's waist and pulled her towards me.

'They all are wrong,' I whispered. 'You're the most beautiful.'

'No, I'm not,' she sobbed in my ear.

'Well, Christina didn't win either,' I said. 'She's not even a princess.'

'What has Christina to do with it?' Richelle sniffed irritably.

'What do you mean?' I raised my eyebrows. 'I thought you didn't want Christina to be the beauty queen. So you didn't win the contest, but at least you didn't lose to Christina!'

'I don't care about Christina,' Richelle repeated. 'Don't you understand? Sunny is more beautiful than me. Sunny! Do you understand that this short, plain girl, who doesn't even try to care how she looks is more beautiful than me?!'

'Rubbish,' I objected. 'It's just luck and nothing more. If this contest had based only on appearance, you would have won it for sure. But there was an intelligent competition…'

'Are you saying that I'm stupid?' Richelle shook off my hands.

I was confused. 'No, I'm not saying that you're stupid,' I mumbled. 'I just meant… I mean your questions were stupid. And anyway, who cares what all these people think. The main thing is that _I_ think that you're the most beautiful, isn't it?

Richelle looked up at me, her big blue eyes were gleaming with tears. My words obviously didn't make her feel better, but at least she smiled weakly. I kissed her. At this moment she seemed so… defenseless and weak. I squeezed her waist, pulling her towards me.

'Come on,' she whispered, gently hauling me away. 'They will be choosing the best costume soon. Maybe my pirate will win.'

###

We made our way to the girls' room where Richelle could change into her costume of a princess. I helped her to zip up the dress, then waited until Richelle did her hair and make-up. When she finally turned to me, I have to admit she looked amazingly beautiful. White-and-blue dress exactly matched her blue eyes, the corset emphasized her perfect breast.

Together, hand in hand, we went outside and headed for the canteen. There we quickly found Tom and Sunny. In ultraviolet light Tom, in his white mummy costume, was like a bright white blur. Liz was dancing with Gregory not far from them. Elmo for some reason wasn't in sight.

Richelle nudged me in the ribs and pointed at Liz and Greg. Gregory leant towards Liz and slightly kissed her.

'Liz isn't wasting time,' Richelle whispered in my ear. 'Last night I told her that Greg really seems to like her and that she shouldn't miss her chance. Why suffer because of Tom if there's someone who can help you to forget him.'

In the centre of the dance floor the cow was awkwardly dancing completely out of beat of the music. The crocodile was dodging the cow's clumsy legs. Next to them the huge mouse was making inconceivable twists and turns.


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15. The last fight and the end of the war**

The lights of the auditorium came on. Mr Wang, Marina and Michael came up onto the stage.

'Now, as I promised, we'll choose the best costume. Dear Beauty Queen and Princesses, come to the stage, please!' Mr Wang said solemnly into the microphone.

In a few seconds the three winners were standing on the stage next to Mr Wang. They all looked really impressive. Tall, slender Helen with short fair hair and huge green eyes. Her black tuxedo accentuated her perfect figure. Tall, not very slender, but all the same beautiful first princess was in a dress which abounded with various designer contrivances. And Sunny in her little silver dress was sparkling in the light of projectors.

'Attention, please!' Michael barked. 'Dear girls,' he turned to the Queen and Princesses. 'Are you ready to select the best costume?'

Sunny, Jennifer and Helen looked around at the crowd in front of them, then leant to each other, and after a little discuss, Sunny stepped forward, and clearly said into the microphone, 'We're ready.'

'So we all are waiting for your decision,' said Mr Wang.

'The best costume at this party,' Sunny began, and glanced around the audience again. 'Before I say it, I want to emphasize that it wasn't only my decision, we chose the best costume together. So, we think that the best costume belongs to one-eyed mummy. Though I can't say for sure that it's a mummy. Maybe it's a zombie. Or something else.'

Jennifer took the microphone from Sunny. 'Anyway, we think that it's the coolest costume today,' she said. 'No one has more ingenious costume. And besides, it's hand-made.'

'Hur-rah!' Liz and Greg yelled. 'We've won again! Come on, Tom, go onto the stage!'

Tom didn't have to be asked twice. He leaped onto the stage, hugged the two princesses and kissed Sunny. The three girls laughed. I glanced at Liz. She was dabbing at her eyes, smiling happily. I guess she finally understood that their friendship with Sunny was much more important thing than Tom.

At the very moment Wilson's arrogant voice came from the gang of trolls. 'Oh, well, who would have doubted that mummy would win?!'

'I've had enough,' Greg growled. 'Wilson! Take off your mask! Right now!' he shouted threateningly. 'I want to see your face. Otherwise I can punch someone else by mistake!'

Victor didn't hurry to show his face, though.

'I'm telling you, stinky troll, take off your mask!' Gregory repeated.

'Knock it off!' Michael barked. 'You'll solve your problems after the ceremony!'

Marina, meanwhile, handed a box with mobile phone over to Tom. Tom thanked her and Mr Wang, looking at his prize in admiration. Then he gave the box back to Marina and turned to Sunny.

'Now can I dance with you, your Majesty,' he bowed and offered his hand to the queen. Sunny, laughing, took his hand and they swayed around the stage in a weird dance.

'Cool dance!' Liz exclaimed.

Soon Tom and Sunny came back to us. The light faded and club music was turned on again. The party went on.

###

In the middle of the party I came up to the counter where there were trays with drinks to take something for Richelle and me. Having taken two glasses of juice, I turned round and bumped into Christina. She was dressed up like a forest nymph, in a green, short, fluttering dress, with flowers in her red hair. Chris smiled at me and took one glass.

'Oh, thanks! Very nice of you,' she cooed coquettishly.

'Not at all,' I muttered, taking another glass from the counter and heading for the tables, where the others were sitting. Christina, however, was trotting alongside me.

'So,' she said, sipping her juice. 'How did you manage to arrange for Sunny to win?'

'What are you talking about?' I turned to her.

'I'm talking that I don't believe that Sunny got a majority of votes by fair means. If it were Richelle, I would believe. Telling the truth I was sure that Richelle would win. She's beautiful like a doll. Even though she has no more brains than a doll.'

'See who's talking,' I snapped.

'Nick, wait,' Christina grabbed my hand. 'Let's talk.'

'Chris, I'm sorry, but I don't want problems with Richelle because of you. Especially now, when she's so upset,' I said, but for some reason I didn't pull my hand out of her grip.

'Let her go,' a voice growled behind me. I turned round. There was Victor, his face was twisted with obvious rage.

I don't know why, probably remembering how Christina had set me up a few days ago, I winked at her, and playfully smiling, said, 'Let's talk about it later, Chris.' Then I let go of her and went to the others.

'Where have you been?' Richelle asked when I returned to their table. 'We've already started to worry.'

'Guys, the party is cool, isn't it?' Greg and Liz came up to us, both looked incredibly happy.

Gregory plopped down into a chair and pulled off his bee head. 'But it's impossible to be stuck inside this thing,' he complained, whipping sweat from his gleaming forehead.

'Kontellis,' Victor came up to our table, looking emphatically calm. 'I want to speak. Let's have a little walk.'

Liz glanced at me in a frightened sort of way. I stood up, feeling a sickening lurch in my stomach. Richelle's fingernails dug into my palm. 'Nick, don't be stupid, okay? No monkey business,' she whispered.

'Sure,' I nodded, not so sure that I would be able to fulfill this promise.

Victor and I went outside and rounded the canteen. I pointed out that there were a lot of people everywhere, so I, at least, wouldn't die because of Wilson's fists. Out of the corner of my eye I also noticed that the others were following us, keeping at safe distance. It was good to know that they were there, because Wilson's friends were standing not far. Christina also was with them.

'Don't dare to hit on my girlfriend,' Victor hissed.

'Fuck off,' I snapped.

'Kontellis, I warned you,' Victor hissed, taking a swipe on me.

I forced myself to stay quiet, though all what I wanted at that moment was to punch this insolent face. But I put on my usual superior expression and said, 'I did not hit on her. Don't judge people by yourself.'

'What are you hinting at?' Victor exclaimed in feigned astonishment.

'I'm not hinting,' I replied, 'I'm saying straight. Go to hell.'

'Oh, how brave we are,' Victor drawled mockingly. 'As far as I remember you wanted to knock my teeth out. So what are you waiting for? Come on! Try!'

'With pleasure,' finally I lost my temper.

Not really understanding what I was doing, I punched Victor in the cheek. At the background, somewhere behind me I heard two exclamations. One of them, sorrowful belonged to Richelle.

'Nick, please, don't! You promised!'

And the second one, cheerful, belonged to Tom.

'Come on, Nick! Get him!'

The next moment he threw himself at Victor, knocking him backwards into the wall of the canteen. The girls around us shrieked. Liz and Elmo rushed to pull us apart, but it was already impossible, because a few seconds later all boys, who were there at that moment, immediately joined the fight.

In a blink of an eye the big lawn in front of the canteen turned into a battlefield, where our little scuffle with Victor had developed into non-joking military actions. Vampires, gnomes, and other representatives of flora and fauna confronted in fight. The cow was beating off the crocodile, which was leaping on it from all sides; the mouse was fighting with the bee; the angel was ducking from Dracula's fists, trying to save its wings.

Some girls didn't desire to be left behind either. Sunny, for example, murmuring "I promised that you'd answer for those tricks, didn't I? So get it!", snatched into Christina's hair. Cinderellas and princesses were standing around them, squealing and screaming.

Mr Wang and counselors came rushing several minutes later and ordered us to stop, but we weren't capable to stop already. Even Michael's soldierly skills weren't enough to stop this boiling force. Then Michael dashed to the director's office and returned with a megaphone.

'Halt!' he roared. 'Hold still!'

The fight finally stopped. Almost. Sunny, not seeing and not hearing anything, went on enthusiastically whacking Christina's bottom.

'Alice Chan!' Marina yelled.

'Oh,' Sunny looked up at her, and giving Christina the last slap, she added coquettishly, 'Sorry. I didn't notice your coming.'

'What's been going on?!' Mr Wang snarled. 'The second fight for the one week! What's up with you? I want to hear explanations!'

No one said a word. We all stood, gloomily lowering our heads.

'Which of you started the fight?' Mr Wang asked.

I caught Victor's eyes. He raised his head proudly, challenging me.

'I started it,' I said firmly, ready for a serious punishment.

'And I,' Tom wasn't going to stay behind.

'And I,' Sunny put in.

'You?' Mr Wang gaped at her, his eyes popping. 'The queen shouldn't fight.'

'Maybe she shouldn't,' Sunny replied with her usual calmness. 'But the queen _should_ be able to defend herself and her friends. And she _shouldn't_ let anybody humiliate and insult her. And I'm not going to. Even if you want to disqualify me.'

'We also started the fight,' Elmo and Gregory moved closer to me and Tom.

Victor and his friends didn't say anything, just stared at us, sneering.

'Okay,' Michael nodded. 'I can see the picture. You all deserve a good punishment, and the Beauty Queen deserves a disqualification. But if you don't remember, I'll remind you, we're having a goodbye party. So I won't spoil the evening for other children, dealing with you. But I don't want any fights. If I see you close to each other, you all will spend the rest of the evening in your rooms. Is it clear? Off you go now!'

We had no choice but to obey. So we smoothed our costumes and walked in different directions.

###

We went until our enemies were out of sight, and only then stopped to examine ourselves. I had a cut lip; Gregory's cheek was dark because of a huge bruise; Tom had lost his fake eye; and Elmo's beard had become significantly thinner. As for the girls, they were quite fine, only Sunny's hair was a bit tangled.

'It was cool, hah!' Tom exclaimed happily. 'I gave Wilson a black eye after all! But this idiot trod on my fake eye. What a pity!'

'Ogh, I personally glad,' Liz shivered. 'You look better without it.'

'Your Majesty,' Tom made a bow to Sunny as deep as his bandages let him, 'would you like to dance with me?'

Richelle rolled her eyes. 'Nick, let's go to my room,' she said, taking my hand. 'You need to disinfect your lip.'

Tom and Sunny decided to return to the dance floor; Liz and Gregory, taking Elmo with them, went off to sit in a quieter place. Richelle and I promised Tom and Sunny to join them soon, and headed for the girls' building.

###

'I asked you not to fight with him, didn't I?' Richelle said, washing the cut on my lip with hydrogen peroxide. 'You know that he provoked you. Do you realize that you did exactly what he wanted you to do?'

'I know,' I nodded. My whole body was aching because of bruises and cuts, but I was happy. This time we showed this moron Victor that he wasn't so cool as he used to think.

Richelle put the vial of peroxide and wet cotton ball down on the bedside table, then walked over to the door and locked it.

'I don't feel like going to the others. What do you think if we stay here? Only you and me…' she sang playfully. She came up to me and took off my hat. 'Have you ever done it with a princess?' she whispered lowering herself onto my laps and kissing me.

I pulled her closer to me, feeling for the zip fastener on her dress. In old time people must have spent much time for undressing, a stupid thought floated in my mind as I rummaged in numerous laces and frills of her dress. Richelle had already unbuttoned my shirt and was kissing my neck. At the very last I unzipped her dress, but it turned out to be very difficult to take off this narrow thing. Richelle giggled.

'There's nothing to laugh at,' I muttered, trying hard not to burst into laughter myself.

Finally we managed to take off this damned dress and fell onto the bed.

###

The party lasted till four in the morning. When Liz and Sunny hammered at the door, demanding to let them in, Richelle and I were lying on the bed, tired, but happy. I quickly put on my clothes, and murmuring goodbye to Richelle, I slipped out of the room, avoiding looking at Liz and Sunny, who were giggling meaningfully.

###

The next morning we woke up because of the siren, which on the occasion of the party was turned on two hours later than usual, giving us time to sleep.

After breakfast we all began to pack our things, and by eleven o'clock we all had gathered on the parking lot, waiting for the buses. Tom and Sunny stood together, holding their gifts and happily smiling.

Neither Christina nor Victor said anything to us. Raising their heads up in the air, they sauntered past us, surrounded by their friends.

'Bad losers, aren't you?' Tom laughed after them.

They didn't even turn to him, just stopped under a tree, looking down their noses around at other kids and from time to time casting glances full of disdain on us.

'Hey, Liz,' Gregory came up to us. 'Could you give me your phone number? I live in other suburb, but all the same, we can meet one day.'

Elmo went bright red and started aggrievedly panting like a simmering kettle.

'Liz has a lot to do without you,' he mumbled. Tom nudged him in the ribs.

'Of course Liz will give you her number,' Richelle sang at the same time, giving Liz a meaningful glance.

Liz nodded doubtfully and dictated her phone number. Gregory diligently wrote it down on a piece of paper and put it into his pocket. 'I'll call soon,' he assured us.

At that time two buses growled into the parking lot. Kids started to pick up their stuff and moved towards the buses.

'Liz…er…Let's sit together?' Gregory suggested.

Elmo opened his mouth to object, but Tom stepped on his foot.

'Sure,' Liz nodded, glancing sideways at Tom. Greg, looking incredibly happy, grabbed her bag and they went off towards the bus. Elmo looked sadly after them.

'Hurry up,' Tom took Sunny's bag. 'Otherwise all good seats will be occupied.

I cast the last glance at Christina when they were going past us towards the second bus. She met my eyes, and turning her back on me, she followed Victor and their friends into the second bus. We climbed up the steps of the first bus.

So I suppose at this point our war was finished


End file.
